MIGRANTS are finding it more difficult than ever to keep themselves and their families safe during the Covid-19 pandemic, and many are living in fear, research suggests.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) has been running an online survey of people who are subject to immigration controls in a bid to understand how the UK Government’s handling of the pandemic has made it more difficult for them to stay safe.

Early indications from the study, which closes tomorrow, are that many migrants are living in fear for both their health and their legal status. Those fears are evident across several sectors, including Europeans, people with non-European work visas and those with no visas at all.

Lilla is an Italian waitress who has lived in the UK for more than 10 years with settled status. However, she said she has felt less than settled at home – a flat shared with strangers – and the restaurant where she works has been unable to remain open.

She has been furloughed for part of the past year and now works part-time, but said she feels she is taking risks with her health in her workplace: “All the staff pretend not to see the guidelines are being broken.”

Lilla said there is not enough PPE and the restaurant is not adequately cleaned, but has no choice but to go in to whatever shifts she is given.

Don, an Australian, works in food production but saw his salary fall when he was furloughed last year.

He and his wife had to renew visas for them and their two children during this time but could not afford a paid appointment to submit the forms at a centre close to them.

They had to embark on a 100-mile round trip to the nearest free appointment in the middle of lockdown, when unnecessary travel was banned.

He said that was “very stressful” in terms of financing the trip and the “unnecessary” health risk from having to make it. Zoe Gardner, a policy advisor with JCWI, told The National that migrants working in hospitality appeared to be the hardest hit.

“They either carry on working, knowing that their places of work are not conforming to the standards of safety that experts recommend, or they have lost their jobs entirely,” she said.

“For people working in music, digital content or other freelancers, when work has dried up, there is no furlough scheme to rely on, but neither can they access public funds, so they are absolutely destitute. A lot have been forced to borrow money in order to get through this time.”

She said many people had been forced to make unnecessary journeys to attend Home Office appointments, often during the strictest times of lockdown. Others had to make drastic lifestyle changes in case they lost income and could not afford the Home Office fees.

Gardner added: “In one case a family with a spouse on a visa from the Philippines married to a British citizen with a child, downsized their house in order to be able to afford fees for the visa renewal due to reduced income during the crisis.”