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 of 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”.