Mick Clarke, the director of the Passage Day Centre in London, spoke in The Guardian of his worries about 2012: "There's this myth, even with the economy as it is now, that people believe you can come to London and the streets are paved with gold. But unless you've got a firm offer of a job, don't come."
The centre receives one report a week of eastern Europeans being exploited by criminal gangs. Mike Nicholas, a spokesman for Thames Reach, says that ‘criminal gangs have been exploiting people in shocking ways tantamount to modern-day slavery.’
The Serious Organized Crime Agency is now investigating several such cases, and 31 people have been arrested in relation to one specific scam that has been under investigation for two years by customs officers and Polish police. This gang had trafficked over 200 people to the UK and carried out approximately £2 million in benefit fraud. (You can read more about this here.)
Gedimanas Rekesius, a victim of trafficking to the UK for work, described his experiences: "For five months I asked when I would get a job, but all I did was clean their home. They were always sending me to the shop to buy them meals, Pampers for the children, that sort of thing. I felt if I said no, there would be big problems."
"I want people to know what happened to me. I will find it hard to trust anyone again."
There could not be more chilling and compelling evidence that we must pressure the government to do more about trafficking and modern slavery. You can sign our Slavery-Free London pledge here and read more about the campaign here.
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