NEW DELHI: The Indian High Commission in the UK on Friday appealed to students from India to get in touch with it for aid and counselling amid reports that around 50 Indian students might have come down with modern slavery.
We were worried to read this news.
Indian students who have suffered this, please call us at [email protected], and we will supply help/counselling.
We guarantee you of privacy in our reaction, the High Commission tweeted.In a report launched last week, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), a UK government intelligence and investigative firm for labour exploitation, stated: Five individuals presumed of recruiting and making use of vulnerable Indian trainees working in care houses across North Wales have been handed a Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order (STRO) ...
The GLAA has identified more than 50 Indian trainees as being prospective victims of modern slavery and labour abuse over the last 14 months.
The individuals have been identified as Mathew Issac, 32, Jinu Cherian, 30, Eldhose Cherian, 25, Eldhose Kuriachan, 25, and Jacob Liju, 47.
They all hail from Kerala.All five were arrested by the GLAA in between December 2021 and May 2022.
Investigations are ongoing however there have actually been no criminal charges at this phase.
The offenders are originally from the state of Kerala in India and have links to care homes in Abergele, Pwllheli, Llandudno, and Colwyn Bay, either by working there themselves or having a direct family link to someone who operates in them, the report said.Issac and his wife, Jinu Cherian, also supplied employees through Alexa Care Solutions, a recruitment company signed up in May 2021.
Reports to the Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline only three months later on stated that Indian workers employed by Alexa Care were not being paid properly or were having their incomes kept.
Significant concerns were raised at the very same time about the employees look and that they constantly appeared to be hungry, the report added.The STRO includes a series of stringent conditions on the accused, consisting of avoiding them from arranging work, transportation or travel for anyone and permitting the GLAA gain access to, at any reasonable time, to where they are living to establish and validate that the order is being complied with.GLAA senior investigating officer Martin Plimmer stated: We are all conscious that staffing levels have been a cause issue in the care sector for some time, and have actually not been helped by the Covid pandemic.
Unfortunately, where labour scarcities exist, there is an increased risk of opportunists using the situation for their own monetary gain, generally at the cost of workers that they are making use of.
Dealing with the exploitation of employees in care houses is among the GLAAs top priorities, and this order is vital in restricting the activities of those we suspect would otherwise commit slavery or trafficking offences.
(With inputs from agencies)