This migrant workers’ rights letter from the Migrant Workers’ Rights Coalition (MWRC) and supporting organisations sets out urgent demands for an end to immigration policies that create insecurity, exploitation and exclusion. Sent to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the migrant workers’ rights letter calls for the scrapping of earned settlement plans, a maximum five-year route to settlement for all, an end to tied and restrictive visas, a more accessible programme of regularisation, an end to No Recourse to Public Funds, the dismantling of the hostile environment, and employment rights that every worker can exercise safely. It also requests a meeting with the Prime Minister and relevant ministers to begin meaningful engagement with migrant workers and affected communities.
The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP
Prime Minister’s Office
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
22 July 2026
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing on behalf of the Migrant Workers’ Rights Coalition (MWRC), a coalition of migrant-led organisations, trade unions, charities, specialist advice organisations, researchers, campaigning groups and community organisations working together to advance the rights of migrant workers across the UK.
Migrant workers are part of every sector, workplace and community in the UK. The policies your Government now takes forward will affect the lives of millions of people — including workers, families and communities who need security, dignity and equal rights.
As you take office, you have set out a commitment to doing politics differently: taking power out of Whitehall and Westminster, building policy through partnership rather than presenting legislation as a fait accompli, and creating a culture where people are listened to, valued and able to shape decisions that affect their lives.
We welcome that commitment. For migrant workers and communities affected by immigration policy, this approach is urgently needed.
For too long, immigration policy has been developed behind closed doors in Whitehall and imposed on communities with little meaningful engagement with those who live with its consequences. Successive governments have expanded temporary status, prolonged routes to settlement, tied workers to employers, embedded immigration enforcement across everyday life, and created barriers that leave many migrant workers living with uncertainty for years.
This approach has had profound consequences. It has increased vulnerability to exploitation, weakened labour protections, separated families, undermined wellbeing, and prevented many people from putting down roots and participating fully in the communities they call home. It has also harmed all workers by creating conditions in which exploitation can flourish and labour standards are driven down.
There can be no meaningful strengthening of workers’ rights without migrant workers’ rights. The Employment Rights Act and wider employment rights agenda cannot deliver justice at work while migrant workers — including sponsored workers, seasonal workers, overseas domestic workers, undocumented workers and others facing immigration-related precarity — remain unable to challenge exploitation safely. A programme for workers’ rights that leaves these communities exposed to employer power, immigration enforcement and insecure status will reproduce the very inequalities it seeks to address.
A just immigration system upholds human dignity, equality and rights. It enables people to build secure lives, participate fully in society, and exercise their rights without fear or prolonged uncertainty. It recognises that immigration policy is inseparable from workers’ rights, racial justice, social inclusion and economic justice.
We therefore call on your Government to make the following commitments.
Cancel plans for “earned settlement” and guarantee settlement for all after no more than five years
We call on your Government to withdraw plans for the “earned settlement” model in full, and to guarantee a clear, secure and affordable route to settlement for all after no more than five years.
Settlement provides certainty and stability, enabling people to establish their lives, support their families and participate fully in society. It cannot become an ongoing process of assessment based on additional tests, vague criteria or shifting conditions. Prolonging temporary status through extended routes to settlement would deepen insecurity, increase bureaucracy, and leave individuals, families, communities and workplaces unable to plan for the future.
Introduce an accessible programme of regularisation
Many people without secure immigration status, including undocumented people, have built their lives, relationships and communities in the UK while facing exclusion, fear and barriers to work, housing, healthcare and public life.
Existing routes are too narrow, costly, complex and difficult to evidence for many people whose lives are rooted here. They rely on individualised applications, long periods of residence and high evidential thresholds, rather than providing an accessible route to security.
We call for an inclusive, affordable and ongoing programme of regularisation that provides pathways to secure immigration status, including settlement, and enables people to live, work and participate in society without fear.
End tied and restrictive visas and immigration arrangements
No person’s immigration status or ability to live and work securely can depend on remaining with a single employer, sponsor, scheme operator, vessel owner or other intermediary. Tied visas and other restrictive immigration arrangements create significant imbalances of power, increase vulnerability to exploitation, and discourage workers from leaving abusive conditions or asserting their rights.
Migrant workers, including seasonal workers, care workers, migrant fishers, overseas domestic workers and others on short-term, sponsored, isolated or restrictive routes, need genuine freedom to change employer, access independent advice and report abuse, discrimination and unsafe working conditions without jeopardising their immigration status.
This includes restoring the unrestricted right of overseas domestic workers to change employer and access a route to settlement, and addressing the immigration-related precarity faced by migrant fishers, care workers and others whose ability to work securely is constrained by dependence on employers, vessel owners, sponsors, scheme operators or intermediaries.
Make employment rights real for every worker
Every worker needs the ability to report exploitation, wage theft, unsafe working conditions, prohibited recruitment fees, debt bondage, intimidation, labour rights violations and human rights violations without fear of immigration enforcement, retaliation or visa consequences. This requires a clear separation between labour rights enforcement and immigration enforcement, secure reporting routes, access to trade unions, and specific protections for workers whose immigration status, accommodation, recruitment debt or sponsorship arrangements are used as tools of control.
Employment rights are meaningful only when people can exercise them safely.
End the hostile environment
We call on your Government to dismantle the hostile environment and end policies that embed immigration enforcement into housing, healthcare, public services and other aspects of everyday life. This includes ending No Recourse to Public Funds conditions that push people into poverty, insecurity and dependence. These measures have caused profound harm, fostered fear and exclusion, and undermined trust between communities and public institutions.
Ending the hostile environment also requires a clear break from political rhetoric that scapegoats migrants for crises caused by political choices, underinvestment and inequality. Public debate must be grounded in dignity, evidence and shared rights, rather than fear and division.
Place migrant workers and affected communities at the centre of policymaking
Immigration policy needs to be shaped in partnership with migrant workers, migrant-led and migrants’ rights organisations, trade unions and wider civil society. Those with lived experience bring essential expertise and need a meaningful role in developing the policies that affect their lives.
Your recent commitment to a more open, respectful and participatory way of governing creates an opportunity to change how immigration policy is made. That means engaging with migrant workers and their organisations before decisions are taken, not after policies have already been designed. It means ensuring those directly affected have a meaningful and ongoing role in shaping legislation, implementation, labour market enforcement and accountability mechanisms. It means recognising that lived experience is not an add-on to policymaking, but a form of expertise.
Prime Minister, this is an opportunity to move beyond an immigration system built on precarity and punishment, and towards one rooted in justice, security, dignity and equal rights. Such a system would strengthen workplaces, reduce exploitation, support thriving communities, and help build a society in which everyone can live and work without fear. Improving living standards across the UK requires tackling the immigration-related precarity that enables exploitative employers to undercut rights and evade accountability, while making it harder for workers to organise collectively for better pay and conditions.
We request a meeting with you and relevant ministers within your first month in office to discuss these proposals and begin a process of structured engagement with migrant workers, trade unions, migrant-led organisations, human rights organisations, frontline support organisations, specialist advice organisations, research bodies and wider civil society.
The Migrant Workers’ Rights Coalition brings together organisations rooted in migrant communities, workplaces, trade unions, frontline support, human rights advocacy, research and campaigning across the UK. We are ready to engage constructively with your Government to achieve meaningful change. At the same time, we are committed to organising collectively alongside migrant workers, our members and allies to secure the commitments set out in this letter.
We will continue to build public understanding, deepen our coalition, organise with migrant workers and pursue coordinated parliamentary, community, workplace and public advocacy until the UK’s immigration system is transformed to uphold justice, security, dignity and equal rights for all migrant workers.
We hope your Government will seize this opportunity to deliver lasting change.
Yours sincerely,
Migrant Workers’ Rights Coalition and supporting organisations
After Exploitation
Another Europe is Possible
Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU)
BARAC UK
Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union (CAIWU)
Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX)
Forced Migration and The Arts
Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
Greater Manchester Unite Community Branch
Haringey Migrant Support Centre
India Labour Solidarity (UK)
Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB)
Indoamerican Refugee and Migrant Organisation (IRMO)
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)
Justice for Carers — UK
Kalayaan
Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS)
Long Residency Advocacy Group
MIGRANTE UK
Migrant Action
Migrant Democracy Project
Migrant Futures Alliance CIC
Migrant Worker’s Union — Northern Ireland
Migrants At Work
Migrants Organise
Migrants’ Rights Network
Nanny Solidarity Network
National Education Union (NEU)
PCS
POMOC
Refugee & Migrant Justice
Regularise
Right to Remain
Saathi House
Skill Migrants Alliance Limited
Skilled Worker Justice Alliance (SWJA)
Social Workers Union (SWU)
Solidarity Across Land Trades (SALT)
Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC)
SWTU
The Voice of Domestic Workers
Tulia Group CIC
University and College Union (UCU)
Unite — Section of Architectural Workers
United Migrants Workers
United Voices of the World Trade Union (UVW)
Unity of Migrant Workers
VOSI
Work Rights Centre