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DEADLY BUNCH
‘They’ll kill me if they find me’ – escaped slave reveals horrifying truth about your Mother’s Day supermarket flowers
MILLIONS of us will be popping to the shops to treat our mums to a bunch of flowers this Sunday.
But while they may look beautiful, there's a horrifying truth about some of the bunches sold in our supermarkets.
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British flower farms have become a hotbed for modern slavery - with hundreds of foreign nationals illegally trafficked into the UK every year and forced to work in hazardous conditions to pick stems for just 8p per bunch.
We've heard modern slaves are often forced to work back-breaking 15-hour days with no protection from the harmful chemicals used to cultivate the plants. But worst of all, they're even threatened with violence against themselves and their families if they escape.
Martin* was trafficked to the UK and forced to pick flowers when he was in his early 50s. He is just one of a suspected 136,000 slaves in Britain today, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index.
In September, eight people were rescued by police from an unnamed farm in Cambridgeshire where they were subjected to "cramped and poor conditions" and received "little or no money".
Here, Martin bravely shares his story as part of The Sun's Stamp Out Slavery campaign in conjunction with Co-Op, backing Lord McColl's , which proposes to extend support given to rescued slaves from 45 days to one year.
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Over an agonising ten months, Martin was forced to sleep on a bare mattress ridden with ravenous bed bugs, and his bosses hauled him from factories to fields for weeks of hard labour.
In return, they stole from him and beat him - and while his only dream was to get away from his captors, they were quick to deliver a chilling warning if he tried.
“They told me that if I reported anything to the police, I would have to move so they couldn’t find me," he tells Sun Online nervously, clearly still frightened that he will be found and fearful of speaking out when many others wouldn't dare.
"They said they would bludgeon me with baseball bats and said it had happened four times before to men ‘like me’,” Martin painfully recalls. For this reason, Martin is unable to reveal any specific details about his true identity as he fears that he would be hunted down and killed.
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New life became living hell
Martin grew up in a small town in Poland and had studied hard throughout his childhood. He graduated from agricultural school but a lack of work pushed him into factory work.
Lonely after losing both of his parents in their early 60s, and having no family of his own, he didn’t think twice about responding to a small newspaper advert offering paid employment in England.
The job seemed to offer everything he'd been waiting for - a fresh start in a new country, regular income and somewhere to live and call home. Despite the very low pay, he was excited for a new adventure.
“They said they would provide us with a suitable home and the agent’s office was crammed with men, so I quickly signed the contract,” Martin says.
The Sun wants to Stamp out Slavery
Slavery takes a variety of forms, but most commonly forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic work or forced criminal activity.
The Home Office estimated that there are 13,000 people held in slavery in the UK, with the Global Slavery Index suggesting the figure could be as many as 136,000.
The UK recognised a staggering 5,145 victims from 116 countries in 2017, including adults who had been used for organ harvesting and children that were forced into sexual exploitation.
At present, trafficked victims have just 45 days support after being freed before they are expected to leave the UK and are deported by the Home Office.
During this short time, they are given accommodation, financial aid, medical treatment, counselling, a support worker, a translator and legal advice.
We want the government to:
Back Lord McColl's proposed bill, which suggests all victims of modern slavery should be given a year's support to recover.
Alongside that they should be given special support to help them, including housing benefits, financial help and other services.
After forking out £110 for rent, the agent also demanded Martin pay for his own work clothes and told him to pack painkillers - though he wasn't told why.
Little did he know then that he'd be forced to work through any injury not severe enough to hospitalise him, such as painful muscle sprains, cuts and bruises - so the medicine would be essential.
There are no obvious signs that a flower has been picked by someone in slavery"
Jakub Sobik, Antislavery International
In autumn 2012, Martin travelled to England by mini bus - after 40 hours, the group of men arrived and were taken by car to the grotty and dirty home they would share for the next few months.
Exhausted, hungry and nervous about what lay ahead, Martin’s heart sank when he saw the home his employers had provided was nothing more than a shared room and a bare mattress on the floor ridden with bed bugs.
“None of the men spoke out, we just got on with it. We were grateful for the work,” he said.
The men also shared a bathroom and kitchen, which were equally basic and dirty.
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'Sometimes I earned just £10 a week'
The men were hauled from place to place in an old mini van to pick flowers on different farms.
“We went from fields to factories. At first, we worked for weeks across several different fields. We picked cabbages and cut flowers to be transported to sell in UK supermarkets,” Martin says.
During the winter they spent hours in freezing cold factories where they would lug around heavy boxes of produce.
Still, none of the workers ever called in sick as their pay, which was often as little as £10 to £20 a week, wasn’t enough to cover their basic needs, so they would have to rely on the minimal amount of cash they had brought over.
Photo of a woman cleaning windows is shared by cops with a serious warning about Slavery in the UK
Martin was shocked when his boss – who he says was a relative of the agent he had met in Poland – told him there would be no work for a few weeks.
“The agency didn’t tell us there would be periods where you would have no work. They let us stay in our accommodation if we paid rent but they didn’t pay us."
That's when Martin's boss offered him a bed in his own home.
"I didn't realise the danger at the time," he admits.
Human punchbag
Once under the same roof, Martin's bosses started to beat him – punching and kicking him unconscious.
"They punched me and then when I fell to the floor they kicked me several times," he recalls.
They warned him that if he tried to escape they would find him and savagely beat him to death with a baseball bat.
HELP STAMP OUT SLAVERY
Want to help? Here are some of the possible warning signs to look for, according to the Modern Slavery Helpline:
- Workers might appear frightened, withdrawn or confused, and show signs of psychological or physical abuse.
- Labourers being exploited may always be accompanied or have restricted movement
- They often lack protective equipment or suitable clothing required for their job and have not been trained to safely fulfil their role
- The employer may have confiscated their ID or passport
- Individuals may work extremely long hours, not have a contract and may not be paid National Minimum Wage, or not paid at all
- Workers are forced to stay in accommodation provided by the employer. This accommodation could be overcrowded, or they may live on site
- If they don’t live on site, they may be transported to and from work, often together in groups
- The person might not accept money or be afraid to accept payment
Suspicious? You can call the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700, or fill in an online report at:
When the beating finally ended, he was left in unbearable pain and miraculously found an opportunity to flee to a local doctor’s surgery.
“I finally felt safe enough to speak out in the privacy of the doctor's room," he says.
Seeing his horrendous injuries, doctors immediately referred him to the UK police.
“It wasn’t until I spoke with the police that I heard the term ‘human trafficking’ used. I was frightened,” he says. “How had this happened? I had chased a dream and ended up as a slave.”
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'I’m rebuilding my life, but I'll always fear they’ll find me'
Agreeing to help the police with their enquiries, Martin was granted protection and referred to the Salvation Army who gave him temporary accommodation.
He had escaped but he knew he would always have to look over his shoulder when walking down the street in case his captors tracked him down.
Charity Migrant Help stepped in to help Martin with his paperwork for a National Referral Mechanism - the government system that provides slavery victims with safe accommodation, medical treatment, psychological help, material assistance, legal and translation help. Last year, 6,993 potential victims were submitted to the NRM.
'I only got help for six weeks'
Usually decisions as to whether the applicant is a victim of human trafficking are made within five days, and then support services are made available. But this is only for a short 45-day period before being completely withdrawn, often leaving migrants very vulnerable to being re-enslaved and left homeless.
But for those who have suffered years of torment – both physical and psychological - 45 days is just not enough to rebuild their lives. This is why The Sun Online, alongside Co-op, are campaigning for this period to be extended to a year.
Martin has now been referred to City Hearts, a charity for migrants following the NRM who, alongside Co-op, launched the Bright Future programme, which offers paid working placements to victims of modern slavery.
After a week’s placement, Martin landed a permanent part-time job with the Co-op and has now been working with them for 11 months.
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“For the first time in years, I feel a new sense of hope and I’m finally able to gain some independence,” Martin says. He has his own place to live and his own bank account.
Sadly the agent in Poland and Martin’s boss, along with others like him, still haven’t been caught. Their network is widespread and many vulnerable victims are too afraid to speak out in fear of their lives.
That’s why we are here to tell their story, and to campaign for a brighter future.
Latest from Stamp Out Slavery
Justine Currell, Director at Unseen, says: “There were 45 cases in agriculture and farming in the UK reported to the Modern Slavery Helpline in 2018.
"This isn’t just an issue happening in faraway supply chains, it’s here in British fields.
"Workers might be exploited directly by a farmer, or more commonly by a middleman providing labourers.
"If you work in the sector and have any concerns, or if anyone observes warning signs such as fearful or unkempt labourers sleeping on site or being transported in a group, call the Modern Slavery Helpline (08000 121 700) to report and get free confidential advice.”
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