Low-hanging fruit in UK farms

Manoj was an agricultural seasonal worker in the UK. He is back in Nepal, having saved £8,000 in just five months picking berries (pictured above).

An estimated 3,365 Nepalis worked under seasonal work visas in Britain in 2021-22, but last year that number dropped to zero. UK-based farm operators stopped hiring from Nepal after media exposed Nepali workers being charged exorbitant recruitment fees.

It is critical to expose stories about fraudulent recruitment and employment conditions that often trap workers. However, employers pulling out from the Nepal labour market in response is not a desired outcome -- especially not for migrant workers and their families.

It deprives them of income, since seasonal jobs offer wages that are many times higher than what Nepalis can earn in Nepal, or in the Gulf and Malaysia where workers also have to pay recruitment costs.

Such decisions also overlook the good actors in Nepal’s labour mobility industry. As elsewhere, good and bad entities coexist in Nepal's recruitment sector, a distinction that needs to be made before the whole labour market is tarred with the same brush.

Nepal’s recruitment industry actually has innovative home-grown responsible practices that offer practical insights relevant for the industry globally.

But why should employers care?

Closing the door to Nepali workers does not save scheme operators from similar reputation risks and penalties like getting their  licenses revoked, because workers elsewhere are also vulnerable to abuses including high recruitment fees. 

Media exposés showed similar abuses of workers from Indonesia and Bangladesh. Research by Focus on Labor Exploitation (FLEX), showed 72% of the 396 workers interviewed including from Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Uzbekistan also had to borrow money to pay for the costs of coming to the UK.

A better solution for hiring companies would be to instead be more selective about the recruiters they partner with regardless of the migrant origin country. Nepal has examples of good recruitment actors and innovative practices which have not got global attention, and which are worth showcasing.  

Ensuring responsible recruitment in practice requires innovations that go above and beyond those prescribed in documents, but are products of trial-and-error and multiple iterations to win the confidence of aspirants. Recruiters travel to villages to bypass fraudulent middlemen.

They conduct one-on-one counseling and investigation at various stages of the recruitment process to ensure that workers have, in fact, not paid any fees. The goal of these safeguards is to collectively help workers understand that refusing to pay for jobs will not cost them their job.

It is not surprising that seasonal workers in the UK from Nepal, Indonesia or Bangladesh paid high fees for jobs in an attractive destination  which makes it easier for unauthorised intermediaries to manipulate and cheat them.

Employers also play a critical role in influencing the behaviour of recruiters. Due diligence and monitoring before and during the recruitment process, and a credible threat to recruiters of losing future business in case of non-compliance are part of a responsible recruitment arrangement. Then there are concerns about employment conditions in some of the farms, including worker safety, accommodation, pay and unrealistic daily targets. 

Good migration can be transformational when it is transparent and responsible with the right players involved. Research has shown the potential gains of reducing migration barriers are in the trillions of dollars.

Evaluation of New Zealand’s Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) has shown how migrants from the Pacific Islands benefited from higher incomes, asset accumulation, and improved children’s school attendance after working in New Zealand’s horticulture and viticulture industries. 

We have witnessed the remarkable journeys of returnee migrant workers now running factories, bakeries or restaurants who attribute their success to foreign employment. The Nepali Times series ‘Diaspora Diaries’ showcase many of these stories.

Of course, not everyone becomes a successful entrepreneur, but the more common stories are that of incremental progress including better investment in children’s education, concrete houses, healthcare, and repaid loans. The larger the wage differentials, such as between the UK and Nepal, without hefty recruitment costs or other contractual violations to dampen it, the higher the benefits.  

Conducting ethical recruitment drives is a Nepali story. Being intentional about using good migration to help families move out of poverty, discrimination or to recover from disaster are Nepali stories. Well managed bilateral migration programs such as to Korea under the EPS is a Nepali story. Cases of positive transformations owed to migration are all Nepali stories. These, too, are stories that need to be told, lessons of which can inform the UK seasonal worker scheme.

To be sure, malpractices in the recruitment and employment of migrant workers should be exposed and often are the impetus for concrete actions against the perpetrators. But when there are good actors in the Nepali labour mobility ecosystem that could conduct the same recruitment drives responsibly and transparently it is a pity to lose opportunities.

This alternative as opposed to doors getting closed for our workers would be a win-win for all including the workers who are hired without false promises, for employers who get better matched workers and be spared of damaging reputational risks and for good recruiters who will get to compete fairly.

The UK returnee Manoj says, “The seasonal agriculture experience I got could be even more transformational for the poorest farmers of rural Nepal if there was a farm-to-farm transfer mechanism. They would be even more physically and mentally suited for the job. Furthermore, they would return with experience and exposure to new ideas they could apply back home.”

Economically, geographically or socially marginalised Nepali farmers can gain even more from access to ethical recruitment drives. Such a strategic design of labour mobility is possible to achieve larger developmental goals for which there is a role for donor organisations like UKAid, and social enterprises, including those engaged in inclusive finance. 

If the onus is only on UK-based employers hiring workers, they may look to hire from closer destinations that are cheaper or from countries where the visa process is less onerous.  A 2022 survey of seasonal workers in the UK, shows a greater proportion of Indonesians and Nepalis compared to other nationalities had paid higher recruitment and job finding fees before arrival.

A Review of the Seasonal Worker Visa has recommended among others has called for ‘consideration of the employer pays principle’ and ‘investigations into how these costs might be more equitably shared along supply chains’. There is resistance to it from businesses including how it would drive up consumer prices. It is a topic currently under review in the UK.

In 2023 and 2024, another 3,500 plus Nepalis could have benefited as previously from the UK seasonal program had we not lost access to this corridor, and if the right players had been involved from the onset. We would be remiss not to see this as a wasted opportunity with tractable solutions.

Upasana Khadka heads Migration Lab, a social enterprise aimed at making migration outcomes better for workers and their families. Labour Mobility is a fortnightly column in Nepali Times.