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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Emily Dugan

Revealed: Indonesian workers on UK farm ‘at risk of debt bondage’

Man and robot working on strawberry plants
A technician operates an agricultural machine in the strawberry sheds at Clock House farm. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg/Getty

Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.

Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.

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