Submitted by Fiona Costello on Mon, 06/04/2020 - 19:00
In our latest blog we look at the accomodation realities for some migrant workers living in shared housing, HMOS, shared caravans on farms and even those who are rough sleeping. We examine and discuss the difficulties and practicalities of social distancing in these settings.
An IPPR report released this week examining the impact of the coronavirus on migrant workers highlighted the fact that they are more likely to be in more precarious employment arrangements (such as zero hour contracts), and to live in rented, overcrowded accommodation. Our research has certainly shown this.
In this blog series, we have previously discussed the working conditions of migrant workers on farms, living in overcrowded disused holiday rental caravans.
For these workers their accommodation is linked to their employment, such as daffodil picking. For agriculture workers in a crowded caravan of six and living in close quarters with another 40-50 occupied caravans with shared laundry facilities, self-isolating and social distancing will prove difficult. Not to mention the potential loss in earnings and the difficulty in accessing benefits.
Read more here