October 2026 Newsletter: Safer reporting and fairer visas for migrant workers
02/11/2026
Amos Mhando
Everyone deserves to be safe and treated fairly at work. This month, FLEX has been calling for changes to the Immigration and Asylum Bill so that migrant workers can report exploitation and seek justice safely.
Read on to find out what else we’ve been working on and how you can get involved.
Latest updates
Workplace Justice Visa: learning from Australia, making the case in the UK
How can workers pursue justice when reporting exploitation could put their permission to live and work in the UK at risk?
Our 29 September webinar, co-hosted with the TUC, explored Australia’s Workplace Justice Visa and the lessons it offers the UK. As UNISON’s Narmada Thiranagama put it:
“We badly need to give migrant workers access to the employment rights that everyone else can expect.”
The proposed UK Workplace Justice Visa would give exploited workers temporary permission to remain and work while pursuing a workplace claim, participating in an investigation or seeking redress.
Our parliamentary briefing sets out the proposed amendment and why this protection is needed. Together, the briefing and webinar explore how a UK Workplace Justice Visa could help workers seek justice without putting their immigration status and livelihoods at risk.
Support the Workplace Justice Visa amendment
If your organisation or trade union would like to support this amendment and help strengthen migrant workers’ access to justice, please contact us at [email protected].
Read the Workplace Justice Visa briefing →
A joint call to protect migrant fishers
FLEX’s new parliamentary briefing calls for a Sector-Wide Fishing Worker Visa, with support from Ethical Trading Initiative, International Transport Workers’ Federation, Nautilus International, The Seafarers’ Charity and Stella Maris.
Alistair Carmichael MP, Chair of the APPG on Fisheries, will table an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill to establish this visa. If adopted, the visa would allow migrant fishers to enter the UK to work in the fishing sector. Unlike a sponsor-visa, workers would be able to change employers within the sector without losing their immigration status, giving them greater freedom to leave abusive or unsafe conditions.
With the planned abolition of the Immigration Salary List at the end of the year, the Skilled Worker visa route is set to close for fishers. This risks increasing reliance on the ‘Transit Loophole’, leaving more workers exposed to exploitation.
Together, we urge the Government to support the amendment and protect the workers who sustain the industry.
This call builds on Voices from the Deck, which documented migrant fishers’ experiences of exhausting working hours, unequal pay and barriers to healthcare and compensation after injuries. As one worker explained:
“There’s even times we go without sleep for 60 hours.”
Read the joint parliamentary briefing →
World Mental Health Day: mental health matters in every workplace
World Mental Health Day on 10 October was a reminder that every worker’s mental health matters. Everyone deserves dignity, understanding and access to support, including in their working lives.
Conversations about mental health at work need space for workers’ own experiences: the pressures they face, how they feel and what they believe would help. People should be able to seek support and raise concerns without stigma or fear of being treated unfairly.
Listening must also lead to action. Employers need to take concerns seriously, involve workers in decisions and address working conditions that create pressure. Workers should be able to contribute safely, with their privacy respected.
These conversations matter throughout the year. Supporting mental health requires continuing attention to people’s wellbeing and meaningful opportunities to shape their working lives.
At our webinar on 30 September, we explored how workers’ experiences can inform decisions about their working conditions. Marisol, a former cleaning supervisor and peer researcher, shared her perspective on why workers need to be at the centre of those decisions.
The discussion drew on five years of testing worker-centred human rights due diligence—how businesses identify and address risks to workers’ rights, with workers directly involved in shaping the response. It explored what worked, the challenges encountered and how listening can lead to practical improvements.
The webinar launched FLEX’s report, A Seat at the Table?, which examines what helps businesses and suppliers turn workers’ knowledge into practical improvements. Both the discussion and report highlight why workers’ concerns need clear routes to the people with the power to act.
Anti-Slavery Day: everyone should be able to seek help safely
“[I would raise a complaint] if I was protected in some way […] against deportation.”
— Renata, a worker interviewed for LEAG’s Opportunity Knocks report (2020). Name changed.
Renata described working 19 hours a day, seven days a week, without breaks or days off. Yet fear of removal from the UK stopped her reporting the exploitation she experienced.
Her experience illustrates why preventing exploitation means making it safe to seek help. When reporting abuse puts someone’s immigration status at risk, abusive employers gain a powerful means of control.
Following Anti-Slavery Day, we must recognise that prevention starts before abuse reaches the threshold of modern slavery. All workers should be able to report problems early, access support and challenge exploitation safely.
FLEX, alongside Latin American Women’s Rights Service, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, has supported Sian Berry MP to table an amendment at the committee stage of the Immigration and Asylum Bill for safe reporting protections for migrant victims and witnesses of crimes.
These protections would enable workers to come forward without fear of their information being used for immigration enforcement. They must be supported by immigration routes that allow workers to leave abusive employment and exercise their rights in practice.
Nobody should have to endure abuse because seeking help could leave them worse off.
Read why Secure Reporting is needed →
What would you like to hear more about from FLEX?
Help us make our updates more useful. Our quick survey has just six short questions and takes only a few minutes. Your answers will help shape the topics and resources we share.