Criminal Gangs 'Enslaving London's Homeless'

2011-09-13T10:11:23Z

The UK is seeing a rise in the number of rough sleepers being exploited and enslaved by criminal gangs, charities are warning, following the revelations that some of the "slaves" kept at a traveller camp in Bedfordshire were homeless people.

London-based homelessness charity Thames Reach told the Huffington Post UK that they had come across 20 cases in the last few months where people had come to them for help after fleeing captivity.

The warning comes after 24 people were found to have been allegedly held against their will and forced to work at a traveller site in Leighton Buzzard.

Mike Nicholas, of Thames Reach, said there had been "occasional rumours a year or so ago" about people being sold into slavery within the UK, but confirmation of the practice had come over the last few months including one case where a man was "bought" for £100.

Most of 20 the victims aided by Thames Reach are said to be of Central and Eastern-European origin. The charity said the eastwards expansion of the European Union in 2004 saw an increase in the number of people coming to Britain in search of work. While most are able to secure jobs, the charity said, some fall by the wayside and end up living on the streets. Unable to receive benefits and desperate for work they are prime targets for the capital's gangs.

Nicholas warned gangs were "preying upon desperate and vulnerable people" and keeping them in properties against their will. He said they were "turning up in vans and trying to recruit people" at homeless shelters and soup kitchens.

In one incident, men were forced to work 12 hours days and were paid only in alcohol, while the gangs kept the profits. Victims have also been physically abused. One man suffered burns on his wrists after being handcuffed to a radiator.

Victims have been put to work in, among other places, bakeries and mattress factories.

Paul Donohoe of Anti-Slavery International said the Leighton Buzzard case would not come as a shock to those working with homeless people on the ground.

So far four men have been charged with conspiracy to hold a person in servitude, requiring them to perform forced labour at the site in Leighton Buzzard.

Bedfordshire Police, who raided the camp on Sunday, said they found some of the alleged victims "living in their own urine".

Donohoe said the "harrowing" stories of the conditions the men were kept in has further exposed the problem of vulnerable homeless people being tricked into forced labour.

"What's really unusual is that you have first hand testimony of homeless people describing their conditions," he said.

But it has been reported that some of the men said to have been held against their will in Leighton Buzzard have returned to the site while others have refused to co-operate with the police investigation.

And Joseph Jones of the Gypsy Council questioned why, if they were being held against their will, they had not tried to escape previously.

"The idea you can keep people in prison without any gates beggars belief," he said. "The idea that people can't leave because they are too terrified of being beaten up ... who's going to beat them up if they get on bus and go somewhere else?"

But Thames Reach said often victims of forced labour will not try to escape captivity because they are "quite scared of retribution".

A spokesperson for the Serious Organised Crime Squad (Soca) said that they had helped Bedfordshire police out with specialist advice on how to help and interview vulnerable people extracted from these situations but was reluctant to comment further.

Statistics published buy antislavery.org provide some indication of the scale of the problem.

Using the national referral mechanism (NRM) - the official way for authorities to identify trafficked people – figures show that during the period 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2011 there were 1481 referrals to the NRM. Of those, 72 per cent were female, 28 per cent male. Surprisingly, 74 per cent were adults, compared to 26 per cent child referrals.

Of the 1481 referrals, 30.3 per cent were for labour exploitation, 18.4 per cent was for domestic servitude, leaving 43.6 per cent accounting for sexual exploitation.

Amnesty International declined to comment.

Dale Farm Eviction Will 'Not Come In The Middle Of The Night'

2011-09-01T09:42:14Z

Travellers due to be evicted from Britain's largest illegal site will be given one week's notice before the bailiffs are sent in, the local council has said.

Basildon Council told the Huffington Post UK the operation to remove the 400 residents of Dale Farm was "not going to come in the middle of the night" and that the notice period was intended to give the traveller community a "chance to leave the site peacefully".

The move comes amid reports suggesting violence could flare at the site once the eviction takes place. A banner reading "we won't go" currently straddles the entrance to the site.

One resident told Sky News that the travellers would rather burn their homes down than let the bailiffs enter the site.

"They will burn what they have up there," she said. "They will use their homes and cars as shields and set fire to them because they're not going to let people come in."

The council said they hoped there would not be any trouble, but that if it did become violent "that's when the police can step in".

The operation to move the travellers from the site is estimated to be costing the council £8m, while the policing operation is expected to cost an extra £10m.

A 28-day notice served on residents of the settlement near the village of Cray’s Hill in Essex expired at midnight on Wednesday.

After a decade long dispute the council has been granted the authority to clear the site. On Wednesday the Dale Farm traveller community lost a last-ditch legal bid to prevent the council sending in the bailiffs.

The notice served by Basildon Council required travellers to vacate 51 unauthorised plots on the site that has been developed on greenbelt land.

Any eviction is unlikely to happen in the next week as the council gave assurances to the High Court that it would take into account the health of one Dale Farm resident, 72-year-old Mary Flynn, before proceeding.

Joseph Jones, the secretary of the Gypsy Council said he expected the council would not want to start any eviction procedure around her as it "could be interpreted as a bit heartless".

He said that the Dale Farm negotiating team had been told by the council that they would be given notice before any moves were made to remove them. Jones said he did not expect the council to "start throwing their weight around" by turning up unannounced, as there were "all sorts of implications to that type of way of behaving".

While the travellers own the land the council said they did not have planning permission to build on it. But Jones said the council could still change their mind about proceeding with the eviction, and instead choose to re-examine planning applications.

It has been reported that the operation could begin from September 13 as the council has apparently cancelled all its meetings between then and September 22. The local Echo newspaper said it had learned this was because a "special site clearance project team of council officers" would be occupying the rooms usually used for meetings.

Talking about the forthcoming clearance operation, councillor Tony Ball, leader of Basildon Council, said he had no choice but to forcibly remove them.

“Direct action to clear Dale Farm is a last resort for the council and we take it reluctantly - but after almost 10 years of legal wrangling, the travellers have left us with absolutely no choice," he said.

“We now have a difficult operation which we will carry out in a safe and lawful fashion," he said. " “In the meantime I am making a final appeal to the residents to leave Dale Farm peacefully. I would also ask any visitors to the site or anyone who truly has the traveller’s interests at heart to urge them to do this as well.”

Lawyers acting for the Dale Farm residents say they plan to appeal the decision not to grant an injunction.

Latest News

Criminal Gangs 'Enslaving London's Homeless'

Dale Farm Eviction Will 'Not Come In The Middle Of The Night'