No More ”Free Work Visa UK, No IELTS, No Experience, No Job Offer” UK Seasonal Visa Scam! Careful!
Many videos, blogs and other writeups advise foreign agricultural workers to apply for the so-called UK Free Work Visa(Free Work Visa UK, No IELTS, No Experience, No Job Offer). No IELTS, no experience, no degree and no job offer. This has made many people both educated and non educated, experienced and non experienced from overseas, to be running a race to get this visa and move to the UK to work thinking it’s for free after most try to apply on job websites. These videos and blogs advice like indeed and don’t get any reply. They now go through unverified sponsors who then takes huge amounts of money from them for sponsorship, pays them very small amounts of money when they get there and threatens to send them back if they retaliate.The UK government itself has made conditions for this visa worse by increasing the visa fees more than double the initial amount, and failing to investigate allegations of widespread exploitation and unjust recruitment practices. Some sponsors of these visas due to overseas workers.
No More ”Free Work Visa UK, No IELTS, No Experience, No Job Offer” UK Seasonal Visa Scam! Careful!
Hence, in this post we will tell you all the twists of the UK seasonal work visa, which many people refer to as the UK Free Work Visa without IELTS experience or job offer and why you shouldn’t be applying for this visa any longer. Last week, on October 22nd, 2023, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism TBI reviewed 19 Home Office farm inspection reports between 2021 and 2023. The reports revealed that of the 845 workers interviewed and employed under a seasonal worker visa, nearly half 44% claimed mistreatment, discrimination, wage theft and threats of being sent back home. The findings of the farm inspection reports counter claims by Farming Minister Mark Spencer, who said that people working under the seasonal visa scheme are very well looked after and that employers make sure that their welfare needs are met.
The results of the government inspection reports were consistent with interviews with farm workers that T-b-i conducted as part of its investigation. One farmer, called Julia from Bolivia, told TBI that a recruiter had told her that she would earn up to £500 a week picking fruit under a seasonal worker visa contract. But when she got there, she was not given any shifts during her first week, and the next week she made less than £150. Also on many farms, workers reported not having showers or toilets in their caravans. In others there were mice, cockroaches or bedbugs.
All this happens when visa scheme operators are required to ensure workers are properly paid, treated fairly and live in suitable hygienic accommodations. Most interviewed migrants were among the estimated 90 migrant farm workers who held an unofficial walkout in protest over being asked to pay for their flights to the UK, and £250 every week for six weeks, on top of accommodation deductions. The deductions would leave them only £16 on the weeks when they are given the hours guaranteed by the farm. What a pity. As TBI reported, some farm inspection reports also revealed that some workers had paid as much as £7,500 in recruitment fees to work in the UK. The charging of recruitment fees is illegal in the UK. The UK agricultural sector contributes around £130 billion €149 billion to the UK’s economy and employs about 467,000 people, according to a 2022 government study.
The labour that keeps the farm belts of agriculture spinning is supplied by an estimated 70,000 migrant workers each year, according to a study by the University of Sheffield. About 99% of seasonal workers came from outside the UK, with most from Ukraine, India and other countries. Under the UK Seasonal Worker Scheme, people can come and work for up to six months. No knowledge of English is required, but visa holders cannot change their sponsor once they arrive in the UK, claim welfare benefits or sponsor other family members to join them.
But the UK government, instead of making things easier for people to come to the sector due to labour shortage and considering all the mistreatment given to them, the UK government has instead implemented a number of measures that make it more difficult to obtain a seasonal work visa, including increase visa fees from £50 to £298. That is more than double the amounts. Raising minimum wage for this visa from £8.91 per hour to £9.50 per hour in April 2023. Reducing the number of visas available under this sector from about 55,000 to 25,000 yearly. Hence, looking at it critically, you can see that the UK seasonal Worker visa has created problems for migrant workers even in their countries of origin. Some recruiters even mislead workers by saying that they could renew the seasonal worker visa and return to work for the next season, which are all ways to collect illegal money from them.
Overall, not all recruiters actually exploit workers under the seasonal work visa. Some actually follow the rules and issue sponsorship, but you need to be extremely careful if you want to move to the UK under this visa route. Make sure you do your due diligence before paying any money to anyone. We hope this information was very helpful to you.
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For more about UK Immigration:https://gov.uk
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