Choir a lifeline for exploited carers

RESPITE FOR MIGRANT WORKERS UNITED BY POWER OF SONG

- BY ROS WYNNE-JONES AND CLAIRE DONNELLY

AFTER finishing her studies in the UK, June landed a full-time job with a care work company. After completing an interview and training, and paying a £4,500 administration fee, she was ready to start work.

"I never got a single shift," says the 51-year-old, who lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, with her husband and son. "They kept saying, 'next week, next week', but nothing happened. Then the woman stopped taking my calls.

"It was a racket."

Scammed by her employer, June only found out they had ended her employment when the Home Office contacted her to say she had 60 days to find a new sponsor or go home to Nigeria. She now works nights in a care home where she says she daren't complain in case she loses a sponsoring company again. We have changed her name.

"The work is so hard," she says. "It's 8.45pm to 8am with no break. I make food, but I bring it home again - I don't get time to eat it. The only person who speaks to me, or ever says thank you, is the clocking-in machine."

That was before June joined a local choir - Barnsley Caring Voices - which brings migrant care workers together in song and solidarity. Tonight, the choir are performing in the magnificent Huddersfield Town Hall, opening Unison's Kirklees branch AGM under a banner that reads: "When words fail, music speaks".

Set up by Unison in July 2024, the choir doesn't just sing together it brings together workers exploited by unscrupulous employers. For June, it's a moment to let go of the fear and exhaustion, and to be herself.

"I get bad anxiety about work, I can't sleep," she says. "Even the residents ask if I'm OK because they see you're not taking a break, you're not having leave. But you are at the mercy of your employer. Whatever they do, you just have to keep on working."