Indonesian fruit-pickers say seasonal work in UK left them drowning in debt
Al Jazeera
Migrant workers say they were fired within weeks of arriving at UK farm after failing to meet impossible targets.
Medan, Indonesia – Indonesian workers who paid thousands of dollars to travel to the United Kingdom to pick fruit say they face the prospect of returning home heavily in debt after being sacked for not meeting unrealistic targets.
Migrant worker Abdul said he departed for the UK in May with nine other Indonesians under the country’s seasonal worker scheme, which grants foreign workers six-month visas to work on British farms.
Hired by UK recruiter Agri-HR, Abdul was sent to Haygrove, a farm in Hereford, about 215km (135 miles) southwest of London.
“A friend of mine who had already been to the UK told me about the opportunity. He said I could make $65 per day picking fruit,” Abdul, who asked to use a pseudonym, told Al Jazeera.
Abdul, who made about $130 per month in his previous job as an ice cream seller in Central Java province, said he racked up about $4,000 in debt borrowing money from family and friends to pay fees to two Indonesian third-party organisations – a recruitment agency called PT Mardel Anugerah International and a workers’ hub called Forkom – as well as out-of-pocket expenses to travel to the UK.
