Faversham-based Agricultural labour supplier AG Recruitment & Management, which at one time was the largest supplier of international labour to the industry, managing the employment of some 1,450 Indonesians in 2022, has had its licence revoked by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).
The move follows a number of incidents reported by the Guardian and others in which workers supplied by the company were reported to have accrued debts of up to £5,000 to secure work in the UK.
The GLAA began an investigation into the company more than two years ago, and although the findings of that have not been published, it said on 3 December that AG’s licence had been revoked as the company had failed to ‘act in a fit and proper manner.’ Last year the Home Office took away the company’s licence to operate as a seasonal worker sponsor following allegations that workers recruited by the company had overstayed their visas.
Douglas Amesz, AG’s managing director, told the Guardian that the GLAA investigation had “ found nothing.” He added, “It took a very long time, and it was very detailed. There was no wrongdoing,” and said the loss of its licence was due to the previous Home Office decision.
He admitted that workers he recruited had paid fees to third parties but said that he had done his best to prevent this. “Third parties get involved – unscrupulous people doing the wrong thing. That’s what happened. I had no knowledge of it,” he added. “I can’t influence what I can’t see and what I can’t touch and that’s what happened in Indonesia. It’s happening now, still… Indonesians, boy, oh boy, talk about corrupt. You know, eastern Europe’s corrupt. They’re all so corrupt. All the countries that we recruit from, there’s a high level of corruption and they just get better at it.”
Migrant Rights Specialist Andy Hall said the industry and government still had a lot of work to do to prevent abuse of the system. “Despite this important licence revocation, no one has received any remediation for vulnerable migrant victims,” he said. “Worse than that, as we saw with the UK food sector’s ill-informed recruitment from Indonesia again this year, the retailers, farms, scheme operators and more importantly the government have yet to learn any lessons from this scandal.”
A spokesperson for the GLAA said, “When an allegation is received, the GLAA will conduct a thorough investigation and this includes working with other government departments and enforcement agencies… AG Recruitment and Management’s licence was revoked after our investigation found there to be a breach of 1.1 of our licensing standards, which states: ‘The licence holder, Principal Authority and any person named or specified in the licence must at all times act in a fit and proper manner.’
“Following our decision to revoke, this decision was appealed, and later withdrawn by the licence holder. The GLAA strives to ensure that we operate a robust licensing scheme, and we will investigate any allegations reported to us regarding a breach in our standards.”
