CAMPAIGNERS and MPs warned today that migrant workers are at risk of being exploited amid government failures to gather “basic information” after their skilled working visas expire.

The public accounts committee (PAC) said the Home Office had not analysed exit checks since the Conservatives introduced skilled worker visas in 2020.

Some 1.18 million people applied to come to Britain on this route — to attract skilled workers in the wake of Brexit — between its launch in December of that year and the end of 2024.

About 630,000 of those were dependants of the main visa applicant.

But the PAC said there is both a lack of knowledge around what people do when their visas expire.

It also found that an expansion of the route in 2022 to attract staff for the struggling social care sector led to exploitation of some migrant workers.

The PAC report said there was “widespread evidence of workers suffering debt bondage, working excessive hours and exploitative conditions.”

It added there is “no reliable data on the extent of abuses.”

But the fact a person’s right to remain in Britain is dependent on their employer under the sponsorship model means migrant workers are “vulnerable to exploitation,” it warned.

Adis Sehic, of the Work Rights Centre charity, warned the report “unequivocally finds that the sponsorship system is making migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation because it ties workers to employers.”

He added: “This report is yet more damning evidence that the principle of sponsorship … is inherently unsafe for workers — and in our view, breaches their human rights.

“Structural reform of the sponsorship system must urgently be undertaken if this government is to meaningfully uphold its commitments relating to employment and human rights.”

Among other recommendations the PAC said the Home Office should work with relevant government bodies to “establish an agreed response to tackling exploitation risks and consequences.”

Figures published earlier this year suggested thousands of care workers have come to Britain in recent years under sponsors whose licences were later revoked, in estimates highlighting the scale of systemic exploitation.

The Home Office said more than 470 sponsor licences in the care sector had been revoked between July 2022 and December 2024 in a crackdown on abuse and exploitation.