Employers who flout visa rules could face lengthy bars from hiring foreign workers, as part of a crackdown on abuse and exploitation.
Ministers plan to double the length of time companies can be sanctioned to two years for serious employment breaches like not paying the minimum wage, or for repeatedly disobeying visa rules.
Measures introduced through the government’s Employment Rights Bill – which is currently making its way through parliament – would also take action against employers who are showing signs of rule-breaking.
Enforceable action plans binding businesses who commit visa breaches into improvements will be strengthened, and the period they apply for will be lengthened from three months to a year.
While these plans are in place, employers will be restricted from hiring overseas workers.
Migration minister Seema Malhotra said the government was committed to “ensure those who abuse our immigration system face the strongest possible consequences”.
She added: “No longer will employers be able to flout the rules with little consequence or exploit international workers for costs they were always supposed to pay if they choose not to recruit domestically.
“Worker exploitation is completely unacceptable. Shamefully, these practices have been seen particularly in our care sector, where workers coming to the UK to support our health and social care service have all too often found themselves plunged into unjustifiable insecurity and debt. This can, and must, end.”
New powers will also make sure that employers pay the costs of visa sponsorship, instead of passing this onto their workers.
The Home Office says overseas workers who have joined the UK care sector have been particularly vulnerable to exploitation.
Some 450 sponsor licences in the sector have been revoked since July 2022, and work is taking place to help care workers into alternative jobs when their sponsor has lost their licence.
Health minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Migrant workers are a valuable part of our social care workforce, supporting vulnerable people across the country every day. Many have travelled to the UK with the promise of a rewarding and fulfilling career.
“However, there has been an unacceptable rise in the exploitation and abuse of overseas social care workers from rogue operators.
“Cracking down on these unethical employers will protect migrant workers from unacceptable and shameful exploitation.”
The rule changes will apply to skilled worker visas first, including for care workers, and would be extended to other sponsored routes in future.
Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the Work Rights Centre, welcomed the government’s plans, but said what was being done was the “bare minimum”.
Dr Vicol added: “‘Waiting until employers have committed serious breaches of the law before taking action was indeed the tactic of the last government, but if this government is serious about addressing migrant workers’ exploitation, it’ll have to go beyond simply sticking plasters on a broken work migration system that enables exploitation by design.
“Urgent and extensive reform of the sponsorship system is the only way to properly protect migrant workers from exploitation.
“Days before they were elected, Labour committed to investigating the appalling treatment of migrant care workers. They must deliver on this promise, which will inevitably point the finger at sponsorship.”
