Farmers 'exploiting illegal foreign labour': Welfare groups say arrests highlight use of immigrants on low pay

(First Edition)

IMMIGRANT welfare groups yesterday accused farmers of exploiting illegal workers recruited through 'organised networks' following the arrest of 81 fruit pickers in Kent.

A Home Office spokesman supported their claim that many farmers are using gangmasters to recruit illegal immigrant workers. 'We are aware of it,' he said.

Claude Moraes, director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: 'Farmers indicate to labour agencies that they are willing to take illegal immigrants. I would even go so far as to say they invite them in.'

Bob Thomas, a spokesman for Home Office immigration, said that very few cases made it to the courts: 'In order to prosecute it has to be proved that the farmer knowingly facilitated the illegal entry of a person, or knowingly harboured an illegal immigrant. That is difficult to prove.'

On Wednesday immigration officers andpolice raided a farm and arrested 81 pickers; 55 were Czechs, 21 Polish, two Georgian, two Bolivian and one Peruvian. Fifty-four have been told to leave and 19 are to be deported. No further action is to be taken against the remaining eight; some had just arrived and were 'given the benefit of the doubt', the Home Office said.

Mr Moraes said that agencies are used to recruit East European workers and to help them enter the country illegally: 'The workers rarely arrive individually. They come together.'

The workers are provided with poor accommodation - such as tents - and paid low wages for long hours. When the season ends they are often left with nowhere to go. 'Sometimes they agree to carry on working for a reduced wage or even for nothing in return for shelter and food,' Mr Moraes said.

'There are very few inspectors and prosecutions are rare so farmers are not deterred.'

Christine Lumb works for Concordia, a youth services charity in Brighton. She arranges for foreign students to work legally on British farms. Mrs Lumb says that some farmers 'go out of their way' to find illegal labour: their workers have no rights, they can be hired and fired at will and they accept less than pounds 2.69 an hour.

Farmers employ gangmasters to hire casual staff. The gangmasters agree to pick an entire crop within a set number of days for a fixed price. The gangmaster is then responsible for finding the workers, paying them and paying tax on their behalf. Moving his entourage from job to job, the gangmaster's activities are hard to pin down for the authorities.

Mrs Lumb said: 'Tremendous pressure is put on farmers to meet deadlines, particularly from the supermarkets. They want the job done. They don't ask questions.'

A spokesman from the National Farmers' Union said that gangmasters were essential, as farms required 150 workers a day in high season. He said that once the gangmaster was put in charge, it was not the farmer's responsibility to check the employment papers of casual staff.