Seasonal worker visa puts migrants at risk of exploitation, say supermarkets

The scheme was created to create a cheap supply of workers on six-month visas so British farms could plug labour shortages after Brexit. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Britain’s hastily designed seasonal worker visa is causing a headache for supermarkets, which are concerned its structure is incompatible with their public pledges on preventing human rights abuses and debt bondage in their supply chains.

All the big supermarkets have been holding urgent roundtable meetings with growers and others in the industry over the past month to try to find a way of preventing workers from being further exploited under it.