A sex trafficking case from 2008 in Scotland, United Kingdom.
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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
Raid occurred freeing 59 women from trafficking in Scotland.
59 women freed. 35 suspects detained.
United Kingdom GB
Complaints by seven workers in Angus led to the investigation. In Angus and elsewhere, investigators found more than 15 breaches of regulation in such as areas as transportation, accommodation and minimum wage requirements against Polish workers who were employed picking daffodils. After this investigation, Timberland Recruitment Ltd had their license revoked by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), a UK agency which "regulates those who supply labour or use workers to provide services in agriculture, forestry, horticulture, shellfish gathering and food processing and packaging." (http://www.gla.gov.uk/index.asp?id=42) Among other things, the GLA found a letter to the workers stating that they may not leave before the end of the contract without paying a fine to the company, and including threats to their families at home should they not pay, that workers had had deductions from their wages for transportation, housing, and the use of the company's water-proof clothing in bad weather, that workers were regularly receiving below minimum wage, and that they lived in sub-standard, cramped conditions which exhibited fire and health hazards.
United Kingdom GB
Vulnerable women and children from Eastern Europe were trafficked into the UK and exploited by organized crime groups to commit large-scale shoplifting. Victims were housed in overcrowded accommodation and used to steal high-value retail goods for criminal networks.
United Kingdom GB
Eye-witnesses described how a number of police Land Rovers and unmarked police cars swept into King Street in Belfast city centre yesterday around 10am. In dramatic scenes they raided a large apartment block adjacent to the Ibis hotel and arrested two men, aged 22 and 29. One witness, who did not wish to be named, said the apartments were known to be a base for prostitutes, with clients visiting at all hours. Two of the women, both in their 20s, were rescued yesterday from the King Street apartment block and a property in nearby College Place North. The other four women were rescued over recent weeks during the three-month long PSNI investigation. A 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman were also arrested in Cavendish Street, off the Falls Road in west Belfast. One of the suspects is from Northern Ireland, the other three arrested are eastern European.