RENEWED calls for robust legislation to provide migrant workers with better protection have been made following the findings of an inquest into a farm worker last week.
The inquest into the death of George Michael Monte De Ramos Castrudes last week called for an urgent review of winter farm accommodation for temporary agricultural workers.
The findings concluded that Mr Castrudes’ death was linked to cold conditions in the 25-year-old cabin where he was living, but ruled that his death was not linked to his immigration status, and that he was not a victim of modern-day slavery.
Mr Castrudes died on 23 January 2025 aged 37 at Jersey General Hospital, four days after being rescued from a fire in his cabin at La Valette Nurseries in Grouville
To prevent future deaths, Deputy Viscount Matt Berry said he would be writing to ministers and the Jersey Farmers’ Union to recommend further identification of similar cabins, and to assess whether they meet minimum legal standards.
Mr Berry also found that migrant workers may be “slow to raise complaints about the quality of their staff accommodation for fear of that prejudicing their future temporary employment.”
Head of Caritas Jersey Patrick Lynch – responding to the findings – agreed that it remains difficult for workers to speak up about bad living conditions.
“Every person needs to be treated with the dignity that they deserve,” Mr Lynch said. “All organisations and individuals employing people must behave ethically, and we must have the legislation to stop rogue individuals and organisations who treat people in an inhumane way.”
The inquest concluded that employers of Mr Castrudes paid him “appropriately”, and were not found to have contributed to any of financial anxieties.
It was also noted in the inquest findings that Mr Castrudes “had chosen to return to Jersey on three occasions”, an observation cited as evidence against insinuations of modern day slavery.
Islander Ian Cardwell – founder of a company that provides support to Filipino workers in Jersey – disputed the extent to which “return rates” constitute a useful indicator of employee satisfaction.
“Just because they come back, doesn’t mean [the accommodation] is good”, he said.
He pointed out that Mr Castrudes may have been earning twice his previous monthly salary in just one week as an agricultural worker in Jersey.
“People who go to work on oil rigs: is that great accommodation? Is that great work? No it isn’t, but they do get paid a lot”, he argued.
He also reacted to the evidence given during the inquest by Andrew Allan, of Jersey Customs and Immigration, who admitted that the department tends to adopt a “reactive” approach to accommodation complaints.
“It should be proactive, not reactive, somebody should be inspecting the accommodation – but there’s nobody here to do it,” Mr Cardwell said.
“We have a lot of money in this Island, and yet we can’t spend a little bit to check on those who are vulnerable because they don’t know the rules.
“Jersey should have done a lot more, the courts should have done a lot more.”
A statement from JCIS reiterated that “if any of our migrant community have concerns in respect of their immigration conditions, then we ask them to come and speak to us directly.
“We investigate all concerns raised with us, to ensure that everyone is being treated with dignity and respect, and that the strict criteria laid out in the work permit policy is being adhered to.”
But Mr Cardwelll insisted that despite available channels for complaints, Filipino workers too often find their job situation too precarious to “kick up a fuss”.
“They worry that if they raise their head above the parapet, will they get shot at?”
A smoke alarm at the cabin examined as part of a Jersey Fire and Investigations report found it lacking sufficient battery power when the fire commenced on 19 January.
Mr Berry – in his conclusions – said it wouldn’t “be appropriate” to identify the lack of a working smoke alarm as contributing factor to the death of Mr Castrudes.
This, he explained, is because it could have been possible that the Filipino may have died of carbon monoxide poisoning before the sounding of a working fire alarm.
Mr Cardwell disagreed: “Carbon monoxide poisoning, that’s irrelevant: the moment he set fire to it, it would have set the alarm.”
Deputy Beatriz Porée, chair of the Work Permit Holder Welfare Review Panel, said Islanders “have to start changing the narrative towards migrant workers”.
She said the work permit policy needed to be reviewed to put the power to make decisions into the workers’ hands.
The current system, she added, ties them to their employer: workers risk losing their work permit if they complain about conditions.
The policy “does not regard the welfare of migrant workers as a priority, therefore we allow them to fall within the hands of good employers and bad employers”, she said.
“Or do we actually feel responsible enough that as a government, we need to put in place the right measures to protect migrant workers and still carry on striving to make sure that we actually care for people.”
The policy, she said, was created quickly to enable employers to hire workers cheaply – but it did not take into account their welfare.
Mr Castrudes’s death, and the conviction of Deputy Philip Ozouf for offences under the immigration law, highlighted “an issue that has been happening in the Island for quite a long time”, she said.
“The time to change should have been much earlier, but it is never too late”.
