Home Office has no thought how many individuals have stayed in UK after their visas expired, report warns | EUROtoday

The authorities has failed to assemble fundamental data akin to whether or not individuals go away the UK after their visas expire or what number of may need stayed to work illegally, the chairman of a cross-party committee of MPs mentioned.

The Public Accounts Committee (Pac), which examines the worth for cash of presidency tasks, mentioned the Home Office had did not analyse exit checks because the expert employee visa route was launched by the Tories in 2020.

Some 1.18 million individuals utilized to come back to the UK on this route – designed to draw expert staff within the wake of Brexit – between its launch in December of that yr and the top of 2024.

Around 630,000 of these have been dependents of the principle visa applicant.

But the Pac mentioned there may be each a lack of expertise round what individuals do when their visas expire and that the enlargement of the route in 2022 to draw employees for the struggling social care sector led to the exploitation of some migrant staff.

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Its report mentioned there was “widespread evidence of workers suffering debt bondage, working excessive hours and exploitative conditions”, however added there may be “no reliable data on the extent of abuses”.

It famous that the truth that an individual’s proper to stay within the UK depends on their employer underneath the sponsorship mannequin means migrant staff are “vulnerable to exploitation”.

While the issues started underneath the earlier Conservative authorities, the revelations will come as a serious headache for Yvette Cooper, who’s making an attempt to influence voters she will get a grip on unlawful migration.

It comes simply days after new figures confirmed {that a} document variety of individuals have crossed the Channel in small boats within the first six months of this yr, regardless of Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to “smash” the smuggling gangs.

Provisional Home Office information confirmed {that a} whole of 19,982 individuals have arrived within the UK because the begin of 2025 – the best whole for the midway level of the yr since information was first collected on migrant crossings in 2018.

Meanwhile, figures printed earlier this yr advised hundreds of care staff have come to the UK in recent times underneath sponsors whose licences have been later revoked, in estimates suggesting the dimensions of exploitation within the system.

The Home Office mentioned greater than 470 sponsor licences within the care sector had been revoked between July 2022 and December 2024 in a crackdown on abuse and exploitation.

More than 39,000 staff have been related to these sponsors since October 2020, the division mentioned.

In its report, printed on Friday, the Pac mentioned: “The cross-government response to tackling the exploitation of migrant workers has been insufficient and, within this, the Home Office’s response has been slow and ineffective.”

It additionally famous a lack of understanding round what occurs to individuals when their visas expire, stating that the Home Office had mentioned the one means it may well inform if individuals are nonetheless within the nation is to match its personal information with airline passenger data.

The report mentioned: “The Home Office has not analysed exit checks since the route was introduced and does not know what proportion of people return to their home country after their visa has expired, and how many may be working illegally in the United Kingdom.”

Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown mentioned whereas the previous Tory authorities had “moved swiftly to open up the visa system to help the social care system cope during the pandemic”, the velocity and quantity of functions “came at a painfully high cost – to the safety of workers from the depredations of labour market abuses, and the integrity of the system from people not following the rules”.

He added: “There has long been mounting evidence of serious issues with the system, laid bare once again in our inquiry.

“And yet basic information, such as how many people on skilled worker visas have been modern slavery victims, and whether people leave the UK after their visas expire, seems to still not have been gathered by the government.”

Earlier this week laws to finish the recruitment of care staff from overseas was launched to parliament as a part of a raft of immigration reforms.

The transfer has sparked considerations from the grownup social care sector, with the GMB union describing the choice as “potentially catastrophic” as a result of reliance on migrant staff, with some 130,000 vacancies throughout England.

The Home Office believes there are 40,000 potential members of employees initially introduced over by “rogue” suppliers who may work within the sector whereas UK employees are educated up.

Sir Geoffrey warned that until there may be “effective cross-government working, there is a risk that these changes will exacerbate challenges for the care sector”.

He mentioned the federal government should “develop a deeper understanding of the role that immigration plays in sector workforce strategies, as well as how domestic workforce plans will help address skills shortages”, warning that it “no longer has the excuse of the global crisis caused by the pandemic if it operates this system on the fly, and without due care”.

Adis Sehic, coverage supervisor at charity the Work Rights Centre, mentioned the report “unequivocally finds that the sponsorship system is making migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation because it ties workers to employers” and that the Home Office had “simply relied on sponsors’ goodwill to comply with immigration rules”.

He added: “This report is yet more damning evidence that the principle of sponsorship, which ties migrant workers in the UK to their employer, is inherently unsafe for workers and, in our view, breaches their human rights.”

Among its suggestions, the Pac mentioned the Home Office ought to work with related authorities our bodies to “establish an agreed response to tackling exploitation risks and consequences” and establish what information is required, together with “how to better understand what happens to people at the end of their visa and the effectiveness of checks on sponsoring organisations”.

The Home Office has been contacted for remark.