‘I’m ashamed’: working in UK leaves fruit pickers from Indonesia in debt

Agung was expecting six months of well-paid farming work in Britain. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian

When Agung* arrived at Heathrow airport in July, he thought it marked the start of a better financial future for his family.

He was expecting six months of lucrative farming work in Britain to help support his mother and siblings back home in Java. He did not realise the harvest was already well under way – or that the pay would be a fraction of what he hoped.