The number of foreign workers seeking help over claims of exploitation, bullying, underpayment and poor living conditions on UK farms significantly increased last year, the BBC has learned.

Nearly 700 foreign seasonal agricultural labourers complained to the Worker Support Centre (WSC) national charity in 2024 they were being treated unfairly by farmers who had brought them over to work, compared to just over 400 in 2023.

One former fruit picker told the BBC more must be done to protect migrants from being treated like slaves.

The UK government said it always took "decisive action" if abusive practices were found on farms.

Bolivian Julia Quecano Casimiro came to the UK on a seasonal worker visa to pick cherries for Haygrove, a Herefordshire-based farm business.

Ms Casimiro is currently taking the company to an employment tribunal over claims of unfair dismissal, discrimination and underpayment of wages, and now campaigns for better protection for seasonal farm workers.

In an initial ruling, the Home Office found there were reasonable grounds to believe that Ms Casimiro could have been a victim of modern slavery.

She told the BBC she feared the true scale of exploitation of workers was a "hidden problem", adding: "Many seasonal workers continue to have their rights violated at this very moment.

"What is happening is very serious because we don't have access to any assistance or support.

"If the UK government does not take action to stop what is happening there will continue to be more victims of modern slavery."

A spokeswoman for Haygrove said Ms Casimiro's discontent was prompted by a discrepancy in the face value of flight tickets and the amount loaned to workers for the tickets, and lower than typical hours of work available in the month of July, as a result of extraordinary weather conditions.

The company added that her allegations are "materially incorrect and misleading" and that it has "never had accusations of this nature before in the history of our business".

It told the BBC that its practices "are routinely audited by a range of third-party bodies, including by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), the Home Office, the British Retail Consortium, Red Tractor/Assured Produce, LEAF, Soil Association and SEDEX".

The company said Ms Casimiro worked at Hayford for 11 days before leaving with a free air ticket home, and her claims were based on a "short-lived, snapshot, atypical experience".

"We take great care in ensuring fairness and equality in our recruitment and working processes," the spokeswoman added.

'Deeply concerned'

The company said it is also cooperating with a nationwide GLAA investigation into how companies recruited 20 Indonesian workers.

Last summer, those workers claimed they were charged illegal fees to come to the UK by recruitment agencies abroad.

The Haygrove spokeswoman said: "We are deeply concerned by claims that Indonesian workers were charged illegal fees by recruitment agents, which is strictly against our policy and principles."

She added that the company took any allegations of misconduct "very seriously" and had "co-operated fully with investigations by the GLAA".

Haygrove is "committed to fair employment practices and the wellbeing of all our workers", she said.

Workers 'invaluable'

The government's seasonal agricultural worker scheme will see 43,000 visas made available for the horticulture industry and 2,000 for poultry farms this year.

A survey carried out early last year by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) found 91% of respondents reported a positive experience working on UK farms.

However, the WSC, which works to prevent abuses of marginalised workers, said it dealt with a rise in complaints about the scheme during 2024.

One man, from Kyrgyzstan, who worked on different farms in England and Scotland on and off over three years, told the WSC he had been expected to live in poor conditions, been discriminated against and been unfairly dismissed.

The worker, who wanted to remain anonymous to protect future job opportunities, told the BBC through a translator that he felt standards had got worse over that time and farm employers did not care about workers' wellbeing, or level of pay.

The WSC said its caseworkers dealt with 158 farm labourers in one month last summer and referred 19 cases involving 101 individuals to enforcement agencies. The workers were mainly Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek.

The charity wants a review of the seasonal agricultural worker scheme and any risks of exploitation it presents.

A Home Office spokeswoman said its staff had visited 318 farms and carried out more than 2,100 worker interviews, with improvements made every year to stop exploitation and poor working conditions.

"We will always take decisive action where we believe abusive practices are taking place or the conditions of the route are not met," she added.

The National Farmers' Union said overseas workers were "invaluable" to British farmers, who "take employee welfare extremely seriously and are continually adapting the way they operate to provide the best experience for workers".

A spokeswoman added that the vast majority of workers have "a good experience in the UK which results in many returning to the same farms season after season".