SAWS is an acronym for the Student Agricultural Workers Scheme that concerns non-EEC overseas students in full-time higher education - usually from Eastern Europe (eg Ukraine). The students can only be employed for seasonal and UK agricultural work (ie no packing of imported strawberries) and are supposed to be paid at the minimum agricultural workers rate - although in reality they are paid mainly on piece-rates (2004).

The scheme is supervised by the Home Office and is implemented via two types of "operator":
- Multiple Operators who can subcontract the students to farms throughout the UK (incl. N. Ireland)
- Sole Operators who can only use its students on their own holdings; the students may not be subcontracted out to other farms
  Sole Operators for 2004 include:
    -- S & A Produce (UK) Ltd. for 1800 students mainly in Herefordshire (1900 students for 2005, 1330 for 2006)
    -- G's Marketing Ltd. for 916 students in Cambridgeshire
    -- R & JM Place Ltd. for 600 students in Norfolk (420 students for 2006)
    -- Haygrove Ltd. for 560 students in Herefordshire & elsewhere (387 students for 2006)

The quotas for 2007 are now available from the Home Office; S & A Produce's quota is 1146, plus 764 for Romanian & Bulgarian nationals, a total of 1,910.

The 2008 quotas do not appear to be available on the new Home Office web - but the original S&A policy of "only employing SAWS students" as strawberry pickers has long been abandoned. Guess this argument was only used as a means of helping the original Planning Application.

Commencing in 2004, S & A Davies were granted a "Sole Operator" licence for their holdings in Marden, Brierley and Kent. They assured the Home Office that their students at Brierley would be provided with a satisfactory level of accommodation (4 - 5 people per static home), and facilities such as recreational block, licensed bar, pool tables, TV, dance area, doctor etc..

The students pay for their accommodation, electricity and entertainment; they also pay a £100 refundable deposit and a £50 accommodation deposit.

S & A Davies have stated that they are looking to have some 2000 students (at sometime in the future). Having these large numbers of young students concentrated in a rural area could pose major problems for the local environment (police, hospitals, dentists, public transport, etc.). We feel that these matters should be more fully evaluated by the Home Office before granting these sizes of annual quotas.

AVRA is pleased to report that there have been few known problems with the "Brierley students" despite there being limited facilities available to them and the promised "doctor" at Brierley turns out to be a "nurse" who is available only on a restricted basis. However, many Polish students left the farm almost immediately (possible since Poland is now in the EEC) blaming poor wages, the nurse not being able to speak Polish, seven day/week working, and other factors.

However, the potential employment of EEC workers was not registered by S & A  in their Planning Application report to HC:  "the strategic decision of the S & A Group to support the SAWS scheme means that only seasonal workers registered under that scheme are admitted to employment".
Similarly, in the same report, the students were stated to be from agricultural colleges: "The S & A Group exercise this authority (authorised manager of SAWS immigrant workers) by a systematic analysis and selection of approved students from foreign agricultural colleges chosen from suitable sources". While not against the spirit of the SAWS scheme, this is not what appears to have happened with many non-agricultural students at the site.

And now (2007) many of the students are not SAWS workers, and are not even students at all.

For further info., visit Home Office SAWS site 

or see the BBC report of a SAWS Scam which has been operating in Kent

                                                                                                             Students Eating Area at Brierley

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