Modern Slavery Victims Can Now Leave Their Employers Without Risking UK Immigration Status

Modern Slavery Victims Can Now Change Jobs Without Risking Their Leave to Remain: UK Government

Recognised modern slavery victims can now seek alternative employment in the UK without risking their right to remain under the Skilled Worker visa route. The UK government made this announcement as part of a recent statement of changes to the Immigration Rules published on 3 September 2026.

This move comes as a long-awaited ‘sigh of relief’ to many health and care workers, among other skilled foreign employees, who have so far been silently suffering at the hands of their exploitative employers in fear of losing their immigration status in the UK under post-Brexit rules.

How Does the New Ruling Help Skilled Work Visa Holders?

A standard Skilled Worker route, under which the Health and Care visa falls, is tied to one named sponsor. The visa holder is permitted to work in the UK for only the employer named on their certificate of sponsorship. If they want to change jobs, they must either find a new sponsor or risk losing their right to remain in the UK altogether.

With the new ruling in place, foreign nationals who legally came to the UK on the Skilled Worker route and complied with the terms of their visa, but were subsequently exploited by their sponsoring employers, will be allowed to change jobs and undertake work in any occupation for their remaining period of leave. This rule change will be in effect from 8 October 2026 onwards.

Jo White, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship, said in a written statement to Parliament that this new measure “incentivises victims to come forward early and guards against those who seek to weaponise the sponsorship system in order to exploit vulnerable workers.”

What Sponsoring Employers Must Keep in Mind

The government made its stand clear: “Rogue sponsors who exploit workers will face the full force of the law.” For employers sponsoring foreign national workers, this is a reminder that you must safeguard the rights of your workers while meeting your compliance obligations.

If you ever have reason(s) to suspect that your sponsored worker may be a victim of modern slavery, you should refer them to appropriate support without delay. More so if you operate in particularly vulnerable sectors such as health and care or hospitality.

In addition, be aware you must also continue to meet other obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and general employment law duties regardless of your worker’s immigration route.

What If You Are Being Exploited on a Skilled Worker Visa?

If you are a Skilled Worker visa holder who is working currently in an exploitative situation, the first thing you can do is to break the silence.

Contact a specialist immigration solicitor or an established anti-slavery charity immediately. They can make an NRM (National Referral Mechanism) referral on your behalf. It is important to gather as much evidence as you can, like messages, payslips, contracts, dates of significant incidents and so on.

If you are also an asylum seeker in the UK, do not panic about how such a move may impact your asylum claim. Modern slavery and asylum claims can run alongside one another without undermining their respective importance.

Getting legal advice is strongly recommended before you approach your employer directly. It can be your very first step towards a life of safety and dignity.

What Critics Are Saying

Unions and some councils came up with their own provisions in the past to fight modern slavery. For example, Unison worked with care workers and councils to launch a migrant care workers charter, to prevent the exploitation of people on sponsored visas.

Welcoming the new move, Maj Heather Grinsted, Salvation Army’s deputy director of anti-trafficking and modern slavery, said that allowing survivors to work for another sponsor “is a crucial way to help them rebuild their lives safely and with dignity.”

While many activists working on safeguarding workers’ rights believe this new rule could be a game-changer, some, however, warn that this alone will not be effective enough in fighting modern slavery in the UK unless the government takes more aggressive measures to eradicate it from British soil.

The Royal College of Nursing’s General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said in a press release issued on 3 September 2026 that the reality is “these changes alone will leave most of the exploitation unaddressed, with some employers using a wider spectrum of exploitative practices that wouldn’t meet the very high threshold for modern slavery.”

Prof. Ranger further urged the government to “untie all migrant health and care worker visas from employers … .Raising care standards means raising employment standards, but you can do neither while so many unscrupulous employers are able to hold so much power over dedicated migrant nursing staff.”

What Is Modern Slavery?

Modern slavery refers to situations where the workers are controlled and exploited by their employers for personal or commercial gain, depriving them of their freedom and other human rights. It can occur across both legal (agriculture, health and care, hospitality) and illegal (narcotics trade, forced prostitution) sectors.

Modern slavery situations may include (but not limited to) abusive working and living conditions, fraud or deception, intimidation, threats, violence, controlled movement, withheld wages or confiscated passports.

Unlike traditional slavery, it is often difficult and challenging for authorities to identify modern slavery conditions given the hidden ways people are trapped in such a working environment against their will.

We may not even notice the symptoms even though we are quite likely to come across modern slavery as part of our everyday life.

How Prevalent Is Modern Slavery in the UK?

While the UK is considered to be among the least vulnerable countries to modern slavery in the Europe and Central Asia region, several factors drive the risk, including discrimination of migrants and marginalisation of minorities.

The number of identified victims is rising year on year in the UK. The 2023 Global Slavery Index estimated that there were approximately 122,000 people (or 1.8 per thousand) living in modern slavery conditions in the UK in 2021. The House of Lords Modern Slavery Act 2015 Committee’s 2024 report provides a higher estimate of 130,000 victims.

The Home Office data show that at the end of 2025, there were:

• 23,411 potential victims of modern slavery identified through NRM (UK’s framework for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery and human trafficking), the highest since 2009
• 7,130 potential victims identified through the Duty to Notify process (meaning they did not consent to enter the formal support system)
• 30% of all victims were children and 22% of people referred were British nationals

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