Europe|Those British Strawberries Are Being Picked by Central Asian Workers

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By Stephen Castle and Aigerim Turgunbaeva

There were dozens of strawberry plants to prune, and Shukrat Djuraev was more than 3,000 miles from home, but he was not complaining as he worked his way down a giant greenhouse tunnel in Kent, in southern England.

“I like it here,” said Mr. Djuraev, 44, who is from Bukhara in Uzbekistan and is one of thousands of seasonal workers that British farmers rely on every year to get their produce into stores. “It’s good working here. It’s very steady and calm.”

Before Britain quit the European Union, many farm workers came from Eastern Europe. After Brexit, they lost the right to work in Britain — and many voters assumed, therefore, that fewer foreign workers would come.

Instead, 10 years after the Brexit referendum, British farmers have filled labor shortages by turning to a more distant region for seasonal workers, granted entry on six-month visas: Central Asia.

Immigration was an animating issue in the Brexit vote, with its promoters promising that leaving the European Union would allow Britain to “take back control” of the country’s borders. A decade later, it remains one of the biggest political pressure points, this time for the governing Labour Party.

One of the loudest voices behind Brexit, Nigel Farage, and his latest anti-immigration populist party, Reform U.K., have since become a dominant political force, leading in opinion polls and making significant gains in recent local elections. His party’s success has shaken Labour and contributed to the downfall of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation on Monday.