Online Reporter
Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Senior Reporter
THOUSANDS of Zimbabweans working in Britain’s care sector and other sponsored jobs could find it easier to escape exploitative workplaces without immediately putting their immigration status at risk, following new changes to the United Kingdom’s (UK) visa rules.
The UK Home Office has removed the restriction linking the immigration status of certain Skilled Worker visa holders to a specific sponsoring employer where they have been formally recognised as victims of modern slavery.
Such workers will now be able to work for another employer for the remainder of their existing visa, potentially giving workers trapped in abusive working conditions an alternative without risking their right to stay in Britain.
The development is significant for Zimbabwe, which was one of the major sources of overseas workers recruited into Britain’s health and social care sector over the past decades, particularly during the post-Covid labour shortages.
Large numbers of Africans, Zimbabweans included, travelled to the UK after securing care jobs, with many investing huge amounts of money in relocation and recruitment costs.
Zimbabwe and other African countries have lost some of their medical professionals to overseas markets, with Britain among the major destinations for health and care workers.
Available data shows that nearly one in five doctors trained in Zimbabwe is now working abroad, while more than 7 000 nurses, representing about 35 percent of the nursing workforce, are employed outside the country.
On the positive side, the migration of health and care workers has provided important income for Zimbabwean households through remittances, but at the same time contributing to concerns over the loss of trained personnel from the local health system.
Under the previous arrangements, a worker’s immigration permission was closely linked to the sponsoring employer.
This created a vulnerability for workers who experienced exploitation because leaving the job could trigger immigration consequences if they were unable to secure another sponsor within the required period.
Announcing the changes yesterday, the UK Home Office said: “No victim of modern slavery should be trapped with an exploitative employer because of their immigration status.”
It said the reforms would give victims “the freedom to leave abusive workplaces and rebuild their lives.”
The Home Office said it would also take action against employers responsible for exploitation.
“Rogue sponsors who exploit workers will face the full force of the law,” it said.
The Home Office defines modern slavery as including situations involving exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception or abuse of power.
The forms of exploitation can range from withheld wages and excessive working hours to intimidation, restricted movement and other abusive conditions.
The reforms come against a backdrop of a major tightening of Britain’s overseas recruitment system.
The UK Government stopped accepting new overseas applications from care workers and senior care workers in July last year, following concerns over the rapid growth of migration through the care sector.
Following the stoppage of new overseas applications for care worker visas in July last year, only 111 000 skilled worker visas were granted, 76 percent fewer than at the peak in the year ending December 2023.
Zimbabweans who are already in Britain, however, remain among the sizeable groups affected by the country’s sponsored-work arrangements.
Official UK immigration statistics show how important Africa became to the care-worker recruitment drive, with many nationals accounting for tens of thousands of Health and Care Worker visa grants and extensions during the period of rapid expansion.
The latest measures provide a degree of protection for those already working in the sector, particularly those who may have been reluctant to report abusive employers because of fears about losing their immigration status.
The changes, however, do not mean every migrant worker experiencing poor working conditions will automatically be able to change employers.
The protection is specifically linked to a formal determination that the worker is a victim of modern slavery.
The Home Office said the changes were part of wider efforts to prevent exploitation within the sponsored migration system.
It has also strengthened scrutiny of employers, with sponsorship compliance checks designed to ensure that employers bringing migrant workers to Britain meet their responsibilities and that the system is not abused.
For Zimbabwean families who depend on income earned by relatives in Britain, the issue extends beyond immigration policy.
Remittances from Zimbabweans abroad have become an important source of household income, making the ability of migrants to maintain secure employment an issue with implications for families back home.
