Kerala nurses spend Rs 15 lakh for UK jobs, left stranded without work, money

Kozhikode: The moment Santhosh Kumar turns on his mobile internet, his WhatsApp is inundated with voice messages from loan recovery agents of banks, friends, and relatives. Kumar, who was a taxi driver in Kottayam, chokes on his words while playing the humiliating clips.

Kumar and his wife Devi, a nurse, had borrowed around Rs 18 lakh to move to the UK after she landed a job as a care worker in a government-funded childcare home in southwest England.

The job -- offered by the Cambian Group, one of the UK's leading children's behavioural health service providers -- is not exactly what Devi studied for. (She has a BSc in Nursing). But in the hope of a better life, the couple arrived in the UK in May with their three children, aged five, six, and 13. The eldest daughter, a diabetic.

But the family plunged into deeper debt when Cambian did not hire her and left her in a limbo. The couple is livid with Cambian, and Affiniks International, a Kochi-based recruitment agency that got Devi the job offer and work visa. "Even at the peak of the pandemic, we did not allow our children to go hungry. But the agency and the company managed to do that," said Kumar.

(*They requested anonymity fearing retribution).

Devi's is not a one-off case. Scores of nurses from Kerala, hired to fill around 380 vacancies in childcare homes run by Cambian, are pushed to the brink because the company did not keep its end of the bargain. They are either not appointed, or appointed after a delay of up to six months, and worse, hired and paid less wages than promised.

When Onmanorama contacted Cambian's founder and chief executive Mike Ore with a set of seven questions, the group's 'press team' sent a trite reply. "We are very grateful to the nurses from Kerala who have come to work in the UK. They do very valued and much-needed work in our services. We are doing our very best to support these nurses and give them meaningful and rewarding employment. We are committed to each of them. Where we have run into some challenges, we have worked through these and corrected any errors that may have occurred," it said.

Onmanorama sent the seven questions again to the press team. This report will be updated when it replies.

Nurses, however, have harrowing experiences to share in their WhatsApp support group.

"We are falling at your feet. Please change our employer. We cannot suffer anymore. We don't have a penny with us. We will be forced to depend on food banks run by charity organisations," said a nurse who reached the UK in February.

Another nurse staying in Torquay said three of them had to travel to Taunton -- 85 km away -- on a train to attend a five-day training for the job. This training is just an excuse to delay our appointment, she said.

The agency booked a hotel, which provided no food, and had no fridge or oven. The room had only a kettle and water. For five days, they ate only bread and jam and made tea in the room because they did not have money to buy food.

On the fifth day, the nurses found an Indian restaurant on Google and went there. "Like beggars, we checked the price first. The cheapest food on the menu was priced at £12 (around Rs 1,250). We did not buy," she said.

After staying in the UK for a month, their money is fast depleting. "On the 18th (April), we have to pay the rent (for their accommodation at Torquay) for the second month. If we eat, we will not have enough to pay the rent," stated the voice message.

UK Pravasi Helpdesk, a WhatsApp group of Malayalis in the country, said it started getting calls for help in August 2022. "We shared the crisis among our group members and helped find them accommodation," said Anoop Sasidharan, a member of the Pravasi Helpdesk. Then its member solicitor Krish Morgan and social activist Anish Abraham reached out to them with legal support and advice with the help of UKMalayalee.com portal.

Several of the nurses who went to the UK in December and January were appointed after a delay of three to six months. One of them is Bindu V R*, a native of Alappuzha. She reached the UK in February and was placed in a childcare home in April. "After more than two months, Cambian has not given her appointment letter or signed the contract," said her husband Rajeev B*.

The first three days, she and her roommate, another nurse from Kottayam with seven years of experience in the UAE, were made to clean toilets, said Rajeev.

In May, Bindu worked for 160 hours but was paid for only 151 hours at £10.56 per hour, while her certificate of sponsorship said her wage was £11.56. (around Rs 1,200).

In June, she worked 40 hours as overtime. "We don't know how much they will pay," her husband said.

Taking legal recourse

Cambian and its parent company CareTech Group -- one of the UK’s biggest social care chains -- are legally obligated to employ the migrant nurses, and pay them salary from the day they landed in the country, said Baiju Thitthala Varkey, the Deputy Mayor of Cambridge and city councillor from East Chesterton.

According to Sections 13 and 15 of the Employee Rights Act, employees are protected from unauthorised deductions and employers should not accept money from job-seekers.

A criminal defence solicitor, Thitthala has taken up the cause of three nurses with the Acas or the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service, a government-funded independent public body that resolves workplace disputes between employers and employees.

Three more nurses have given their briefs to him.

CareTech, Cambian and Care2Nurse are the three respondents in the petition before Acas.

"Depending on the decision of Acas, we will move the tribunal against Cambian and CareTech," said Laiju Joseph*, a native of Kannur and a senior care worker stranded in the UK without a job.

Thitthala has also written a letter to the Secretary of State for the Home Department seeking an investigation into the "organised criminal activity".

He wrote: "It is nothing but an organised criminal activity to gain a huge amount of money by exploiting the poor Indian nurses. The victims are brought from India to the UK to be exploited. The accounts of the victim are alarmingly worrying".

Some of the victims have children with them, and their mental health and safety are also at risk, he said. "They owe a huge debt, incurred by paying these criminal gangs. I request the police to investigate this matter as a matter of urgency and to protect around 150-300 people who migrated to this country to work ... to look after our sick and elderly people," he wrote to the Secretary.

'They were duping us'

Sometime in October 2022, Laiju Joseph saw an advertisement in a newspaper seeking applications for care workers' posts in childcare homes in the UK. The ad was posted by Affiniks International in Kochi for Cambian.

Joseph was then a staff nurse in a government hospital in Africa. "I wanted to move to Europe to give a better life to my child." He applied.

So did Rebecca John*, a native of Kottayam. Once they showed interest, there was a flurry of eager calls from the agency. They got the instructions.

Register with the agency by paying Rs 11,800 and sending the CV. For Joseph, it was Rs 5,900.

Then, there will be a pre-screening interview and interview. Candidates, who clear the interview will get offer letters from Cambian. They will have to pay Rs 2 lakh to Affiniks. "We gave the money, the agency did not give us a receipt," said Rebecca John.

After that, the candidates will get the 'Certificate of Sponsorship', a digital document issued to foreign workers to apply for visas.

The Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) is issued by the Home Office after the employer reports the vacancy and the selected employee.

Once the CoS is issued, candidates have to transfer £3,250 (around Rs 3.40 lakh today) to the account of Care2Nurse, an agency linked to Affiniks.

They will have to transfer another £3250 or £3300 when the work visa arrives. The total amount comes to around Rs 8.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh. "We paid more because we opted for three-month accommodation," said Bindu's husband Rajeev.

But the trouble started after the candidates paid the money. They were instructed to travel to the UK only seven days before the work visa expired. "I quit my job in October. Ideally, when there is a vacancy and a CoS is issued, companies ask us to report for work immediately. But I'm instructed to go to the UK only in May. I remained jobless for eight months," said Laiju Joseph.

They reached the UK in May but Cambian did not get in touch with them. "We later found out that Cambian did not get in touch with anyone. My visa is expiring in two days. But I am yet to hear from them," said Rebecca John.

Care2Nurse then said they would be hired only after 38 days. "When we asked for that assurance in writing from Cambian, we got a letter from Care2Nurse," she said.

To be sure, Care2Nurse ostensibly took around £6,550 from candidates for  creating 'cultural awareness' and 'language training'.

Rebecca said she would be forced to stage a sit-in in front of the Home Office. "I took a loan of Rs 15 lakh and has an EMI of Rs 50,000 every month. After spending Rs 15 lakh, I have to ask for money from home to survive here," she said.

'No one will have to return, everyone will get job'

Linto Thomas, a partner of Affiniks, said that all the candidates would get the assured jobs because CareTech is a very big company and they can switch child care workers to adult care workers. "It's just a matter of time," he said.

Thomas said the issue was because of the "mismanagement by Cambian".

Cambian was acquired by CareTech in 2018. "They expected to activate a certain number of care homes. But they could not," he said.

He said CareTech had extended loans to some nurses facing a financial crunch.

The nurses are furious with his answers. "We did not take a loan of Rs 15 lakh in Kerala to come to the UK to take another loan. We need our jobs," said Devi's husband Kumar.

Another nurse said Linto Thomas's statement is proof that when Affiniks was interviewing them in October, there were no care homes for us to work in. "How dare he ask for more time. He and his staff have blocked our phone numbers. We are left to fend for ourselves here. We cannot even share our plight with our family back home," said Rebecca John.