Tory and Labour governments have allowed horrific treatment of migrant care workers. People who’ve left everything behind to come to the UK and do care work deserve much better conditions and wages than they’re getting. But instead, they’re getting debt, threats of violence, and racists calling for them to be deported.
If we want to solve the crisis in the care-work sector, we need to talk about that.
Care workers shoved into crisis
Our care sector is reportedly “at a breaking point” because of poverty wages, unattractive career prospects and conditions, and a lack of funding and recognition. It’s a crisis. And some of the UK’s most vulnerable people are at the heart of it. Something needs to change, and quickly. But instead, establishment politicians prefer to go after the migrant care workers who have been an essential part of keeping the system going.
On 4 December’s BBC Question Time, Green leader Zack Polanski countered the political establishment’s attacks on immigrants. But his opponents cynically and misleadingly picked out the only questionable phrase they could find – about ‘wiping bums’. And they had the nerve to do this despite their own parties pushing dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies.
Polanski responded by insisting that:
The Green Party support dignity for migrants & a £15 minimum wage for care workers.
Meanwhile, he said:
Labour & Reform demonise migrants & maintain poverty wages whilst protecting the super rich.
Co-deputy leader Mothin Ali added:
I’m the son of an immigrant, I’m the son of someone who has cared for others all their life
I know who I trust to stand up for the rights of immigrants and careworkers, and it isn’t anyone in the labour party!If you really cared, you’d make sure careworkers were all paid fairly https://t.co/UC9TpiwcHR
— Mothin Ali (@MothinAli) December 6, 2025
Care workers online also emphasised how job vacancies in the sector exist in part because of how so many people look down on the profession or don’t understand it. As one said, the truly insulting people are:
those who pretend to respect the field, who “clapped for carers” but who completely ignored the fact that what we wanted was the equipment to do our jobs properly and a commensurate wage to the essential nature of our roles as carers.
Polanski’s phrasing was certainly clumsy and unnecessary. But, the story isn’t Polanski’s words or the breathless mainstream media headlines that followed. It’s the massive crisis in the care sector, together with the dismal and longstanding failure of our political establishment to fix it. And that’s what we need to be talking about.
Stop modern slavery in UK care work
Care work is hard. Pay is low. And government underfunding is a big problem. The Work Rights Centre has highlighted:
severe staff shortages, with over 111,000 vacancies and rising demand driven by an ageing population
Rather than increasing funding or wages, however, the Tories simply got workers from other countries who would take on the job as an alternative to even worse conditions where they came from.
As Reuters‘s Context explains, migrant care workers came on precarious visas that their employers sponsored. But in many cases, they still had to sell whatever they had or go into debt to come to the UK. Some employers used the power they had to cancel visas as a tool to exploit workers and stop them talking about their conditions. One worker:
- Had to work “60 days straight”
- Didn’t get medical support
- Got “far below the minimum wage”
- Faced threats of “violence and visa cancellation” after trying to speak up
Context adds that, of the cases it documented:
We find the lion’s share of modern slavery cases in the care sector
Abuse is rife. Only a few employers have faced consequences. And very few employees have received government help.
Whistleblowers, meanwhile, fear speaking out. And it’s the people who need care the most who suffer as a result.
Rogue employers have also played around with the lives of people from other countries, swindling large amounts of money from them in the process. And care workers who have come over with the promise of work have found themselves homeless and in debt as a result of this exploitation.
Many thousands of people face modern slavery, and next to nothing is stopping it. The current Labour government, Context says:
Labour has been pandering to Reform UK’s racist anti-immigrant agenda by fuelling fear-mongering about migrant workers. And it has been cracking down on overseas recruitment rather than actually ending slavery. In July, it severely restricted sponsor visas with little planning, consultation, or scrutiny. In short, it showed it either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about how to solve the problems.
What’s more, the government has shown utter disinterest in the sacrifices of care workers, increasing the time they need to wait before they can officially settle in the UK.
This is a moral crisis
The UK doesn’t just have a care-work crisis. We have a moral crisis too. The horrific treatment of migrant care workers is utterly unacceptable. They look after our family members when they are at their most vulnerable. But not only do they face debt, threats of violence, and modern-day slavery. They also have to contend with politicians playing games with their lives to distract voters from the dirty deeds of the super-rich.
Care workers are heroes – wherever they come from. And all care workers deserve dignity, fair pay, and the right to a safe and stable life. Deep shame on all the establishment politicians who refuse to say that.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
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