Earlier this month, in yet another attempt to appease their rabid ranks with rhetoric about ‘taking back control’ of Britain’s borders, the Tories announced a hike in fines for companies and landlords found to be employing and housing illegal migrants.
Outlining the new government measures, immigration minister Robert Jenrick asserted that such penalties are “vital for deterring dangerous, unnecessary small boat crossings”.
In reality, however, it is the Tories’ ‘hostile environment’ that continues to endanger the lives and livelihoods of migrants and refugees – often with deadly consequences.
“Unscrupulous landlords and employers who allow illegal working and renting enable the business model of the evil people-smugglers to continue,” Jenrick stated.
This is correct. Traffickers and bosses are peas in a pod.
But this slap on the wrist will solve nothing – as the Tories well know. Toothless punishments will not stop callous capitalists from profiting from vulnerable migrant labour.
Modern slavery
Despite a raft of official protections, regulation, and legislation, super-exploitative practices have exploded in Britain in recent years. In some cases, these are akin to modern-day slavery.
The National Crime Agency defines modern slavery as labour that is “exhausting, ill-paid, dangerous, and degrading”; that involves “fear, debt, and drudgery”; and where escape is “impossible, forbidden, or punished”.
According to Home Office data, as of 2021 there were 12,727 suspected cases in Britain that fell under this definition. It is estimated that the real figure is far higher, however, standing closer to around 130,000.
As the Tories ratchet up their racist policies, hundreds of thousands of people without legal immigration status – many of whom are children subject to trafficking – will be forced into ever-more desperate situations.
Already, for example, there are mounting concerns about modern slavery within the construction sector, with a 134% increase in reports of super-exploitation in the industry last year.
Construction bosses routinely take advantage of precarious migrant labour: refusing to provide proper contracts or terms and conditions; withholding wages; dishing out draconian punishments and abuse; and threatening to hand immigrants over to the authorities for deportation.
Such dire conditions allow employers to drive down pay and conditions, helping them to squeeze ever greater profits out of their workforce.
Similarly, as investigations into Leicester’s infamous ‘dark factories’ have shown, fast-fashion companies like Boohoo also have no qualms about boosting their profits at the expense of poor migrant labour.
Government watchdogs and state inspectors, meanwhile, have proven impotent at preventing scandalous common practices in such workplaces, including underreporting of hours, harassment, and intimidation.
Blurred line
By handing out the occasional fine, the government aims to give the impression that something is being done. At the same time, however, ministers and officials worry that overly rigorous checks might lift the lid on how widespread super-exploitation is across the UK economy. After all, we are not just talking about a few rogue companies here.
The agricultural sector is a case in point. British supermarkets are notorious for relying on super-exploited migrant labour to provide their freshly-picked produce. The seasonal worker scheme, for example, set up in the aftermath of Brexit to plug the labour shortages, provides a legal route for poor migrants to work in Britain.
Seizing upon this, and promising to help prospective workers tear through red tape, parasitic recruitment agencies charge north of £3,000 in fees. In turn, many migrants become reliant on loan-sharks in order to make ends meet, accumulating unsustainable debts at eye-watering interest rates in the process.
In one example, according to a report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian, as many as 150 Nepalese workers came to Hertfordshire to work on farms supplying shelves at Tesco, Waitrose, and M&S. Unsurprisingly, these workers were subject to “exploitative and extortionate” agency fees.
All of this is taking place under a scheme set up and overseen by the Tories.
When it comes to employment laws, the line between ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ is often blurred. Either way, the bosses don’t give a damn – as long as there is profit to be made. And the Tories are happy to turn a blind eye as their chums in big business ride roughshod over labour legislation.
Paid a pittance; saddled by debt; crammed into smaller and smaller hovels: this is the harsh reality for millions in Britain. Tragedies like the recent Shadwell fire are a direct product of this, as dodgy landlords pack precarious workers into slum housing.
Profiting from misery
The Tories might talk tough when it comes to illegal immigration. Yet the decrepit capitalist system that they defend has come to depend on it.
As capitalism – and British capitalism, in particular – descends deeper into crisis, predatory companies are seizing upon the desperation faced by those fleeing war, famine, disease, and climate chaos in order to maximise their profits.
The capitalists and their representatives are more than happy to point the finger at one another. Yet they are all responsible for perpetuating these barbaric conditions. And they share a mutual interest in maintaining this status quo, as they profit from misery.
Tory ministers get to blame society’s ills on migrants and asylum-seekers, in a cynical attempt to divert attention away from their own crises at home.
Smugglers see a boon in their business, as the UK government pulls up the drawbridge and heightens the walls around Fortress Britain.
British bosses line their pockets, using the threat of deportation to force migrant workers to accept worse pay and conditions.
And the ruling class maintains their power and privileges by whipping up racism and xenophobia, in order to divide the working class, and to distract from the real cause of the problems facing workers across the board: the profit system.
Overthrow the system
Jenrick and co. can rail against this ‘evil’ business model all they like. But for all their solemn soundbites, the measures put forward by the Tories and official regulators will invariably be toothless.
Some on the left argue for migration controls to prevent a race to the bottom in terms of wages and conditions. But this only panders to the artificial divide within the working class that the bosses promote and benefit from.
Similarly, the labour movement must have no illusions in the idea of appealing to establishment politicians in terms of ‘morality’ and ‘legality’ when it comes to protecting migrants’ and workers’ rights. The courts are rigged in favour of the ruling class. As the old proverb goes: the law is like a spider’s web – the small and weak get caught, while the big and powerful rip right through it.
Workers must rely on their own strength. To defend the pay and conditions of all workers, both native-born and migrant, the trade unions must energetically organise in each and every workplace, including sectors such as building sites and delivery services.
Already in recent years, poorly-paid precarious workers have begun to fight back – and win. Those in the ‘gig’ economy, working for companies such as Deliveroo, have shown increasing militancy and organisation, setting an inspiring example for the rest of the labour movement to follow.
While the Tories and Starmer’s Labour compete to see who has the most reactionary immigration policies, workers and youth must fight to bring down the borders – and bring down capitalism.
On the basis of a socialist planned economy, under workers’ control, decent homes, jobs, and services could be provided to all, removing the conditions of artificial scarcity upon which racism, discrimination, and bigotry thrive.
Only by overthrowing the whole rotten system can we end the scourge of super-exploitation and modern-slavery – by ending all forms of exploitation and wage slavery; by ending capitalism.
