Decent work for migrants has been a preoccupation of a number of international organisations, in particular the International Labour Organisation (ILO), for more than a decade. The ILO's Fair Migration Agenda was boosted by the publication of its 'Fair Migration: Setting an ILO Agenda' in 2014 followed by a Protocol in 2014 to its Forced Labour Convention (no. 29, 1930). The UK was enthusiastic in its support and ratified the Protocol in 2016. But between the ILO standards and UK implementation inconsistencies have appeared. In this paper, we use the UK example to analyse this implementation gap by examining how delivering decent work for migrants has proven elusive. We examine how the objective of decent work for migrants has been implemented in the UK from 2014 to 2016, dates of showcase pieces of legislation to counter labour exploitation of migrants yet limiting access to work. The outcome would be that irregularly present migrants have few remedies and diminished access to them as a result of changes which post-date the UK's commitment to the Fair Migration Agenda and ratification of the Forced Labour Protocol.