A LACK of available resources means that Customs “do not have the ability” to ensure that employers are providing safe accommodation for migrant workers living in the Island, the Home Affairs Minister has said.
During yesterday’s States sitting, Senator Helen Miles set out how her department had worked to “help ensure that migrant workers are housed safely and appropriately” following the death of seasonal Filipino farmworker George Castrudes on 19 January 2025.
An inquest held in February found that the Mr Castrudes died from carbon monoxide poisoning after attempting to warm himself with a “makeshift fire” inside employer-provided agricultural accommodation deemed “unfit for human habitation”.
JCIS senior manager Andrew Allan had told the hearing that no “systemic checks” existed for ensuring that employers comply with the section of the work permit policy which stipulates that they provide safe and suitable accommodation.
“The employer is signing that they confirm they confirm they will put the measures in place,” he said. “The onus is on the employer to make sure they’re in place.”
During question time, Deputy Beatriz Porée asked Senator Miles for an update on what changes have since been put in place to ensure that employers provide accommodation “in line with the conditions of their work permits”.
The minister replied that concerns regarding poor accommodation conditions “are actively pursued”, with “the relevant and appropriate interventions” made to protect affected workers.
But Deputy Lyndsay Feltham pressed her on how the department ensures that migrant worker accommodation meets the relevant safety standard prior to the work permit being issued, or renewed.
“The Jersey Customs and Immigration Service rely upon the declaration made by the employer,” Senator Miles replied. “Currently, due to resources we do not have the ability to do any compliance or DIP sampling on those applications.”
Deputy Porée later asked the Home Affairs Minister if she was satisfied that employers in receipt of the work permit are “actually complying” with its accommodation conditions, as opposed to “simply declaring” that they will.
Senator Miles responded: “Sadly, I can’t give the Deputy that confidence. As I’ve said, due to resource issues Jersey Customs and Immigration do not have any capacity to do compliance work.
“It is only at that point that that compliance work can be done that I can have total confidence that every person that comes to Jersey is in accommodation that sustains their wellbeing.”
She denied suggestions made by Deputy Montfort Tadier that the Home Affairs Department was operating with a “business as usual” approach to seasonal worker accommodation in the wake of Mr Castrudes’ death.
“It absolutely isn’t business as usual,” she countered. She added that a “work permit review” being undertaken by the Jersey Community Relations Trust is due to be published in June 2027.
“I think I am due to have some sort of formal briefing about some of the interim findings, but that is an independent review, so I trust that organisation to look in great detail across every aspect where concern has been raised with that work permit policy”, she said.
