BBC Documentaries

Illegal Job Centre (2017x2)

Air date: Jan 04, 2017

Livvy Haydock examines the network of exploitation of migrant workers in the UK, as she meets the men who sit outside our local car parks from dawn in the hope of finding cash in hand work From the landlords who house these men like sardines – 120 from one car park packed into 4 houses - to the white van men who exploit them to cut costs, Livvy discovers who's benefiting from this underground system and the huge risks Eastern European workers are exposed to for a £60 a day job. She meets a 27-year old Romanian worker who reveals the shocking conditions of his construction job to a Hungarian who is now homeless after being left for dead after a fall during an off-the-books demolition job. What starts as big dreams of changing their lives and sending back money to their families can quickly turn to tragedy for these men. But as supply-and-demand drives up the numbers of Eastern Europeans coming over to join this workforce, it seems this "Illegal Job Centre" will continue to thrive.