Indonesian workers who paid thousands of pounds to travel to Britain and pick fruit at a farm supplying most big supermarkets have been sent home within weeks for not picking fast enough.
One of the workers said he had sold his family’s land, as well as his and his parents’ motorbikes, to cover the more than £2,000 cost of coming to Britain in May and was distressed to find himself unemployed with few possessions.
The labour exploitation watchdog is investigating allegations that he was one of several workers charged illegal fees of up to £1,100 by an Indonesian organisation claiming it would get them to the UK faster.
In Indonesia the worker earned about £100 a month selling food and said his parents were “very disappointed” as he had sold everything for a shot at helping his family. He said: “I feel confused and mad and angry about this situation. I have no job in Indonesia [and] I’ve spent all my money to come to the UK.”
The Guardian has spoken to four of the dismissed workers and in three cases seen evidence of apparent fee payments to a third party in addition to the more than £1,000 transferred for flights and visas to the licensed recruiters.
The allegations of illegal fees being paid in Indonesia raise questions about the risk of exploitation in the seasonal worker scheme, which allows workers from foreign countries a six-month visa to work on farms but makes them bear all the financial risk.
The Guardian understands the new immigration minister, Seema Malhotra, will look into exploitation in the work visa system to clamp down on exploitative practices. The Migration Advisory Committee recommended on Monday that seasonal visas should continue to “ensure food security” but that they should include more protections, such as guaranteeing at least two months of work.
Haygrove, a farm in Hereford that supplies soft fruit to British supermarkets, gave the man and four other workers warning letters about the speed of their picking before dismissing them between five and six weeks after they started work. They were booked on a flight home by their recruiters the next day.
The workers said the targets at the farm in Ledbury included picking 20kg of cherries an hour. Another of the sacked pickers said: “It was very hard to meet the target because day by day there was less fruit.”
He said he borrowed money from “the bank, friends and family” and that he was still more than £1,100 in debt. “Why have I ended up like this? Now I’m in Indonesia with no job … It’s not fair for me because I’ve sacrificed so much.”
Beverly Dixon, the managing director of farming at Haygrove, said the farm had consistently had to make up the men’s wages because of poor performance and had supported them to try to improve. She said targets were “set based on achievable standards with the majority of pickers sometimes achieving more than double that speed”.
The five men only arrived in Britain in mid-May and were all dismissed from Haygrove on 24 June, having earned between £2,555 and £3,874. Once the cost of coming to Britain – as well as living costs – were taken from this, several said they were left with significant debts.
Two of the men ran away to London and refused to board flights home booked for 25 June. They have now been given new jobs in a packhouse after an intervention by a migrant welfare activist.
Andy Hall, the migrant labour rights specialist who intervened on behalf of the men, said: “This scandal shows once again that the entire burden of shouldering the multiple risks associated with the seasonal workers scheme in the UK is placed not on supermarkets, farms, scheme operators or other supply chain actors but on vulnerable workers from overseas.”
A Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority investigation was opened last month. It is understood to be focused on allegations over the illegal charging of fees in Indonesia.
Dixon said Haygrove was “deeply concerned” to hear of the “alleged financial challenge faced by the Indonesian workers, particularly if one or more paid an illegal recruiter in Indonesia” and the farm was fully supporting the GLAA investigation.
The Guardian revealed that Indonesians were coming to Britain with debts of up to £5,000 to unlicensed foreign brokers in 2022. The debts were to third parties, and AG, the British agency that officially recruited them, lost its licence as a seasonal worker sponsor.
Since then, Indonesia had been considered a risky country to recruit from, but the route was reopened this year by a new UK recruiter, Agri-HR. It worked in partnership with the Indonesian agent PT Mardel Anugerah, which also secured a licence to recruit to Britain, and was being supported by the Indonesian embassy.
However, workers allege a third party in Indonesia, Forkom, which appears to be a communication hub for Indonesians trying to work abroad, recruited workers and charged fees, saying it could get them to Britain faster. It is illegal to recruit without a licence under UK and Indonesian law.
Agri-HR said: “On hearing these allegations, Agri-HR immediately contacted the GLAA with the request to investigate these claims. The GLAA interviewed some workers that same day and are continuing with their investigations and further worker interviews have taken place and are scheduled.”
Workers told the Guardian that Forkom was encouraging its members to put pressure on the families of the dismissed pickers who ran away, with one saying his family in Indonesia was visited at home at 3am.
In messages to a Forkom WhatsApp group of recruited workers, its chair, Agus Hariyono, encouraged those still in Indonesia to put pressure on the men who had run away in Britain by going to their family homes. In a follow-up video call to members, he then allegedly asked workers to delete records of any money paid to Forkom.
Hariyono said his organisation was a social forum set up for Indonesians with seasonal worker visas after some did not return from the 2022 season, meaning the visa route was closed down. He said one worker “entrusted funds” to Forkom but that “this was intended as a deposit” and the funds were returned to his account to pay PT Mardel Anugerah directly.
Hariyono said it conveyed messages to families to encourage those who were dismissed to return to Indonesia and prevent a repeat of the 2022 season where one in five overstayed their visa.
Delif Subeki, of PT Mardel Anugerah, said his recruitment agency was introduced to Forkom by the Indonesian ministry of manpower and made a commitment to “give priority” to members. Subeki said it “clearly informed” applicants that it was not using any third parties for recruitment and that no fees should be paid.