Ismael’s experience [as an Indonesian fruit picker in the UK] is forming the basis of a test case against the government’s seasonal worker scheme, which argues that the scheme’s design breached his right to be protected from modern slavery and labour exploitation.

The case, brought by the Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU) against the Home Office and Defra, is a civil claim for damages which will say he ended up effectively stuck in the UK in debt bondage.

...The unit is looking for a declaration that the scheme breached the teenager’s human right...

Ismael...said he spent two days sleeping rough at York station before finding an underground recruiter on Facebook. He was lent the train fare to Newcastle to take up a job in a Chinese takeaway using his passport as collateral.

Ismael said he was paid £300 a week, working more than 14 hours a day as a chef’s assistant. “There was an empty storage room that just had bins with rubbish and they asked me to live there,” he said. “It was cold, I had no heater or anything.”.

He is one of more than 34,000 people who were given a seasonal worker visa in 2022. The scheme was expanded rapidly after a pilot in 2019, despite concerns that it left people vulnerable to exploitation.

More than 200 Indonesian fruit pickers who went to the UK in 2022 asked for diplomatic help after facing difficulties. Many arrived late in the season and found there was not enough work on farms to repay their substantial debts.

His initial application to be recognised as a victim of trafficking has been turned down, despite no dispute over its facts.

A government spokesperson said...

“We have established a new team within the Home Office compliance network which focuses on ensuring sponsors are abiding by workers’ rights, and will always take decisive action where we believe abusive practices are taking place or the conditions of the route are not met.”