The UK visa system is enabling unscrupulous employers to
treat foreign workers as modern-day slaves, workers who were paid little or
nothing, were not allowed out and were sometimes abused or beaten, a BBCinvestigation has found.
The situations come from "tied" visas - meaning
the right to be in the UK can be withdrawn by the employer - and
"transit" visas on fishing boats. Transit visas are being used to
bring in recruits to the fishing industry who have no right to set foot on dry
land - and therefore no access to UK employment rights. Some fishing workers
spend weeks at a time at sea, sometimes unpaid, sleeping in cramped conditions,
often physically and verbally abused.
With tied visas, employees must stay with the employer they
arrived to work for - so if they are mistreated and run away, they are likely
to be deported.
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