Migrant Labour and modern day slavery – issues for the Churches
A paper read by the Revd David de Verny (Anglican Chaplain to the University of Hull) to the Hull & District Theological Society on 9 December 2009
Summary by Ann Eccleston
David began by showing us a tiny leaflet containing the rights of individuals which could be hidden in the migrant worker’s sock, as gang masters would not want them to be in possession of such leaflets and such knowledge. Many reports have been published between 2004 and 2008, but nothing has changed for migrant workers. They are still being over charged for transport to this country and the same tricks are still being paid by the gang masters who bring them here. The migrant workers suffer from racist attitudes, and live on illegal sites because they are the only places in which they can live. Eighty per cent the gang masters who are considered to be good guys have criminal records according to the Home Office. Two to three dozen gang masters run sixty thousand workers in Lincolnshire. The migrant workers working in rural areas suffer from different problems from those working in hotels or old peoples’ homes. The term gang master includes employment bureaux as well as those who work from a garden shed. Migrant workers exist all over the world – Lincolnshire migrants from Portugal are settled here. During the last five or six years Brazilians have arrived. In Luxembourg out of a population of three hundred thousand there are one hundred thousand Portuguese migrants – now black Portuguese are arriving in Luxembourg. In America the Mexican migrants can be considered slave labour. Child slave labour does not just happen in India, Boston has also been found to have a factory.
Migrants suffer from name calling, coin throwing, being blamed for mishaps. David argued that there are no more bad apples among the migrants than there are in the indigenous population. Migrants do not usually come to this country voluntarily. They migrate for jobs, for money for food, to earn money to send back to family for food.
An agent can charge six hundred pounds to get from Poland to England. They lend them the money but charge them huge rates of interest. There are two thousand migrants being dumped at Victoria Station every day. The City of Westminster police could not cope. Nobody was prepared to deal with the situation. It was said that these migrants only contributed the value of one mars bar to the G.E.P. There are eighty thousand new people every year, if they only contribute one mars bar that is ridiculous. The vast majority of migrant workers come here from Europe. They are not entitled to any benefits, as you need to live in this country for three years without any break before being entitled to benefits. These migrants are only entitled to emergency medical care.
On arrival the gang master takes the passport from the migrant worker, so that it can be sent to London to register their arrival. If it is actually sent, it takes from three weeks to three months to process by which time the migrant worker could be working in a very different part of the country. Why can this not be done at the local police station? One gang master has been found with two large carrier bags full of three hundred and fifty passports which he had forgotten to give back to his migrant workers. These passports are needed by the migrants to prove their existence. Making these migrants non-people is an excellent way of abusing these people. English lessons have to be paid for at two pounds an hour, which migrants cannot afford. These lessons used to be free. Gang masters can charged fifty to sixty pounds a week rent – they also charge for the privilege of wearing hard hats and so on. If a migrant complains he is beaten up. Migrant workers in Lincolnshire in fact produce twenty-five per cent of all packaged food.
Fit and proper people only can be landlords so gang masters with criminal records cannot be. C.A.B. and the City of Westminster have fought for a rough sleeping intervention place. They do a great job for migrant workers. There are mental health problems among the migrant workers, and they cannot express how distressed they feel due to language difficulties. Only one G.P. practice would stay open so migrant workers could see a doctor when they had finished work – they work from early in the morning until late at night.
Many of the Christian Churches have published leaflets on migrant workers expressing the Christian responsibility as employers and as employed. Catholics are expected to be Christian employers and be responsible citizens. There are no Anglican, Methodist or Baptist papers. The Catholic church does work for migrant workers as they are brothers and sisters. Every church can keep churches open and use halls for English lessons. Lord Richard Harris and Bishop John Saxbee have raised these issues.
The law is alright but it is not being enforced. Gang master licensing authority operate a ludicrous system of points where gang masters can gain points for just putting things right that should have been right in the first place. Migrant workers working in old people’s homes tend not to be European so are not even employed with that safeguard. The European Parliament is no better. The T.U.C. is clued up but Unions will not do anything because they are in competition. The G.M.B. are employing a couple of workers as translators but these are not on the ground.
