‘I wouldn’t wish this on anyone’: the food delivery riders living in ‘caravan shantytowns’ in Bristol

Gig economy workers for Deliveroo and Uber Eats in the city are living in appalling conditions, while putting in long hours, earning low pay and facing mental health problems

Two lines of dirt-encrusted, ramshackle caravans stretch along both sides of a road close to the motorway that winds its way into the heart of Bristol. Rats dart between water-filled concrete sluices to rubbish-flecked mounds of vegetation. Drug users stumble out of the nearby underpass while lorries thunder overhead.

This is the grim encampment where about 30 Brazilian delivery riders working for large companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats are forced to live to make ends meet.