With an amendment going to the House of Lords calling for the Fair Work Agency to establish secure reporting, FLEX teamed up with partners to brief peers about what makes secure reporting so essential.

Migrant workers have a heightened vulnerability to abuse and exploitation and are less likely to report exploitation, due to fear that the authorities will prioritise their insecure immigration status over the harm they experienced. Secure reporting is an approach that creates trust in systems, that concerns will be taken seriously and people won’t face consequences for reporting abuse.

We’re not the only ones who think so.

Margaret Beels, current Director of Labour Market Enforcement:

“We need to have arrangements in place where workers are not in fear of losing their right to be in this country as a result of putting their hands up about labour exploitation. […] There needs to be an expectation on the part of workers that if they go to an authority to demonstrate that they are being exploited, that will not prejudice their right to be in this country.”

Eleanor Lyons, the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner:

“From speaking to victims, I know that they have a real fear about coming forward if they do not have documentation to remain in this country […] We need to be able to give these victims the confidence that if they do come forward their perpetrators will be held to account and that they will continue to receive the support and care that they need.”

Matthew Taylor, Former Director of Labour Market Enforcement:

“It [is] vitally important to maintain a clear dividing line between labour market enforcement and immigration enforcement”.

Peers now face a real opportunity to support secure reporting as part of the Employment Rights Bill, and ensure that the future Fair Work Agency will make it a reality.

Read our full briefing:

Open Democracy: We know how to identify exploitation. Now we need to stop it

Ten years after the UK committed to tackle modern slavery, we’re no closer to preventing it. Instead of acting to avoid harm, migrant workers on restrictive work visas cannot access any government pathway to leave exploitation unless their treatment meets the threshold of trafficking or slavery. We have the knowledge, we have the tools – we just need the action.

Read the piece here

In Case You Missed It:

With the Employment Rights Bill going through Parliament, we have an opportunity to turn the tide on the rampant labour exploitation that migrant workers face in this country.

Our latest video highlights the problems caused by restrictive visa systems, and the solutions to them: