CONCERNS about staff accommodation can be raised with authorities and will be investigated, a Customs official has told an inquest into the death of a Filipino farm worker.
Andrew Allan, a senior manager at Jersey Customs and Immigration Service, said that checks on accommodation were often reactive rather than proactive, but said that he did not believe George Michael Monte De Ramos Castrudes was a victim of modern-day slavery.
Mr Castrudes suffered “significant hypoxic brain damage” after lighting a fire in his work lodgings at La Valette Nurseries, Grouville, on 19 January 2025.
Sharing an on-site timber-frame cabin with co-worker Adrian Aquino, Mr Castrudes was midway through his fourth season on the farm when he died.
Prior to the fire, the 37-year-old had made no official complaints to his recruitment agency, employer or the Jersey Customs and Immigration department, the inquest was told.
Andrew Allan – senior manager at JCIS – said Jersey’s work-permit policy has “measures in place to limit the risk of exploitation”.
He referred to “high levels of requirements” for employers, including “due consideration to the welfare of their employers inside and outside of work”.
A section of the work-permit policy referenced by Mr Allan states that “all employees relocating to Jersey live in accommodation of a standard that supports their health and wellbeing”.
He added that work permits were granted only by the Home Affairs Minister on the expectation that reasonable steps be taken by employers to ensure employees are “suitably accommodated”.
Jersey employers, he noted, are required to check a box to confirm they will “abide” by the relevant conditions concerning accommodation on a “final declaration page”.
Employees, on the other hand, are also required by the work-permit policy to undertake “research before accepting their role in Jersey so they can understand travel, accommodation and living costs”.
Giving evidence, Mr Allan told Deputy Viscount Matt Berry that “enforcement mechanisms” for violations of work permit policy depend “on the level of the breach”.
He said: “If it’s a breach of immigration law, then it could be taken to a criminal level, as we’ve recently seen in the courts.
“But most times we deal with issues administratively. So, the example might be the employer – if we felt they were breaching work-permit policy, we would allow their employees to move to a different employer, and refuse to issue them with any further work permits.”
The inquest heard that no “systemic checks” were in place to uncover breaches in work permit policy.
“How is it [then] determined that the worker is suitably accommodated?” Mr Berry asked.
“The onus is principally upon the employer,” Mr Allan said. “It is a reactive system…For work-permit holders, there isn’t an upfront checking system.
“It is very much, if issues are brought to our attention, we highlight those to the relevant agency.
“Effectively, the employer is signing that they confirm they will put the measures in place; the onus is on the employer to make sure they’re in place.”
But Mr Allan pointed out that the department had only ever received a “handful” of housing-related complaints.
“Our checks are very much based on those applications to us,” he said.
“It’s probably worth saying there’s been quite a change in the immigration space over the last five years.
“We’ve gone from a position where we were issuing 300 work permits a year, to now issuing approximately 3,500 per year – quite a significant work upload.
“We have made changes in order to try and reinforce safeguarding elements of work-permit policy.”
Mr Allan added that any conversations regarding suitable accommodation would ordinarily be between the employer and employee, but admitted that some may avoid those discussions if they have a “concern that they would feel that they might in some way compromise their job”.
“That’s a commonly heard concern, but as a service we would encourage people to come forward to us,” he said.
“If their complaints are genuine, it will not compromise in any way their immigration status.”
Mr Allan was asked by Advocate George Pearce, representing the Nurseries, if the JCIS perceive Mr Castrudes to have been a “subject of modern-day slavery”.
“No, no,” he responded.
“As far as I can see, Mr Castrudes was paid the appropriate amount, he worked the appropriate hours, he came four years in a row.
“I believe it would be unusual, to our mind, that somebody would come back to a modern-day slavery situation.
“We often get complaints about contracts and disputes between employers and employees – that is slightly different to something like modern slavery.”
Executive secretary of the Jersey Farmers’ Union Jane Rueb also pointed to high return rates among Filipino workers as an indication of employee satisfaction.
“We have got a very good return rate: if they don’t come back it is usually because family circumstances may have changed, they may have decided to work elsewhere – it’s happened a few times if they’ve got family working in a different part of the world.”
She added: “In 2025, agriculture will have employed over 300 Filipino workers…The return rate of Filipino farmworkers is 90%.
“[A] community has built up over the last six years, with siblings, cousins and friends all coming to work in Jersey.”
In a statement describing Filipino workers as a “valued part of Jersey’s farming community”, Ms Rueb stressed that the JFU were “deeply saddened” by the loss of Mr Castrudes.
“[We] extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.”
Echoing Mr Allan, however, she explained that, while the JFU helps in the recruitment of migrant workers, responsibility for their welfare lies “with the employer”.
“Some employees may be timid about going to employers with concerns – in those instances, we encourage them to speak to agency representatives in the UK,” she said.
Ms Rueb stated that staff accommodation at farms was covered by “government provisions” and “independent audits such as LEAF, Red Tractor and BRC”.
Ms Rueb told the inquest that a “labour attaché” consisting of Filipino embassy officials based in London visited Jersey in 2019 to oversee ongoing developments across Jersey’s agricultural sector.
It was heard that La Valette was not among the six farms inspected.
Cabins – like the one Mr Castrudes was found by the fire service in – are, she said, no longer the go-to option for farmworker accommodation in the Island.
Instead, Ms Rueb said, farmers increasingly use “purpose-built” accommodation for their workforce.
“If anyone does have people living in cabins, for example, they will try and move their employees into purpose-built accommodation. That type of accommodation is gradually being phased out across the industry.
“I can assure you, the largest farm in the Island has just taken over a hotel and all their Filipino workers will be accommodated in that hotel.”
The inquest is expected to conclude tomorrow.
