JAROVNICE/BRATISLAVA, June 9, (WEBNOVINY) — After a police raid in village of Jarovnice in the Presov County that took place this week, the police stated charges to five people. Three men and two women in one family were accused of human trafficking. They lured their victims to the UK, offering them high income. There they established their victims‘ bank accounts to which the employer paid salaries of the victims. However, only the accused had access to the money and were drawing it for them. The five could be sentenced to four to ten years‘ imprisonment.
The business model was operational at least since May 2008. The traffickers picked up socially disadvantaged victims and promised them jobs in picking, processing and sorting vegetables. These jobs should have paid some 600 to 2,655 euros per month, Police Presidium spokeswoman Andrea Dobiasova told SITA. After reaching an agreement, they were taken to UK by bus and then by cars to the city of Peterborough, where they were made to work 8 to 16 hours per day as slaves. They were also threatened with the withholding of food if they refused to work. The accused took most of the money their victims earned, giving them in some cases only 5 GBP per month and telling them that they were saving them their money for later.
The police cooperated with their colleagues from the United Kingdom in this case. A hundred police officers and six dogs participated in the raid, searching five houses and three vehicles. In 2007, similar case was discovered in Peterborough: a 22-year old man from an undisclosed eastern European country was forced to pick vegetables in poor conditions for a year. This was believed to be the first case of slavery found in Great Britain since it was abolished some 200 years ago.
SITA
