Low-skilled, vulnerable workers are at risk of exploitation because of lax labour laws, a report has warned.
The government's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) found rules were either not being properly enforced or were being flouted by employers.
This affected both British and migrant labour with low skills, it found.
But its researchers warned the agencies tasked with tackling exploitation were weak and underfunded and said any further EU expansion must be managed.
They said European Union and British authorities should "think carefully about how any future expansions are handled" because of the income differentials between countries.
'Struggling to cope'Statistically, employers could expect a minimum wage compliance visit from HMRC inspectors just once in 250 years, the report found.
And at current rates they would face prosecution for breaching labour laws only every million years.
In 2013, there were 2.1m people from abroad working in low-skilled jobs. Just over half of those were born outside the European Union.
The MAC report found that, nationally, such migrants had "not had a major impact" on pay, jobs, crime or public services and the wider UK economy over the last 20 years.
But it warned that - at a local level - in areas where migrants in low-skilled jobs were concentrated, authorities had been left "struggling to cope".
It said businesses which often could not attract British workers benefited from migrant labour.
'Beefed up'Committee chairman Prof Sir David Metcalfe told the BBC: "If the migrant workers are getting exploited it means that the British workers are less attracted to the employers.
"The enforcement activity is simply not strong enough."
Both the Gangmasters Licensing Authority and HMRC should have their enforcement activity "beefed up", he added.
Among the other findings in the report, researchers revealed:
- There are 13m low-skilled jobs in the UK - 16% (2m) of which are filled by migrants.
- Since 1997, there have been more migrants going into high-skilled work (1.3m) than low-skilled work (1.1m)
- Half of all the migrants in low-skilled jobs in the UK came to the country since 2004
- The big influx - half a million - was between 2004 and 2007
- That low-skilled migration from the EU since 2004 has had virtually no impact on the overall employment rate of UK-born workers
- But low-skilled migration has had a "small" negative impact on the wages of low-paid British workers
Non-payment of the minimum wage and other cases of exploitation have become more "pervasive" since 2007, the report's authors said.
Horticulture and food manufacturing were highlighted among the worst offenders.
On a visit to Wisbech in Lincolnshire, the committee found that some migrants were being paid £50 a week.
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