Watching a programme about modern day slavery on the box.
It's not slavery, it's the inevitable consequence of being in The EU.
Did we really think that when we opened our borders a load of decent people would come in?
It was obvious all the spivs and shysters would have a field day exploiting the job!

Nowt else on?

What are the statistics, facts and figures?

It is slavery and how desperate are you to have to pin the blame purely on the EU.
So all entrants are "spivs and shysters", are they ?
Bonkers.

evensteadiereddie wrote:It is slavery and how desperate are you to have to pin the blame purely on the EU.
So all entrants are "spivs and shysters", are they ?
Bonkers.

No not all by any means. And there are some really good people and good workers have come from E. Europe
But an unfortunate fact is that many criminals and criminal gangs have come here also
Mainly from Eastern Europe. We cant cope with our own never mind importing them.

Stayingup wrote:No not all by any means. And there are some really good people and good workers have come from E. Europe
But an unfortunate fact is that many criminals and criminal gangs have come here also
Mainly from Eastern Europe. We cant cope with our own never mind importing them.

I remember around 2002 working in London with Albanians being employed as tradesmen?etc...while Burnley was getting a bit Lively with the BNP and Asians...my thinking at the Time was they'd Have something to moan about If the
Albanians turned up En Mass fortunately or unfortunately they didn't Arrive as we had enough thieving scroats of our own.and there wasn't enough plunder to go around.

There are a lot of eastern Europeans in our prisons but the biggest group now is Albanians and Albania isnt in the EU (yet). So its not an EU problem but it is a problem that we let in a lot of foreign criminals and then fail to get rid of them/stop them coming back in.
There was a government paper in July just gone ("Uk Prison Population Statistics") which indicated (for England + Wales), that 11-12% were foreign nationals and in 2018 the biggest groups within that were Albanians 9%, Poles 9% Romanians 8% Irish 8% Jamaican 5% Lithuanian 4% Somali 3% Pakistanis 3%.
The biggest groups of foreign nationals in the general Uk population are: Indians, Poles, Pakistanis, Irish, Germans, Bangladeshis, South Africans, Nigerians, Yanks, Chinese, Jamaicans
So Albanians (hugely), Romanians, Lithuanians (and Jamaicans to lesser extent) are over-represented. (On the other hand - well done Indians).

A simple easy win to cut the crime & the prison costs bill would be to expel all Albanians from our shores and not let any more of them into the country I guess - but that would probably cause some controversy.

If it's no Joe Hart's fault, it's the EU...

Ludicrous blaming of the EU for this issue in the OP. All we have to do is leave on a beautiful No Deal Brexit whilst waving the Union Jack and singing Rule Britannia and we will be free of criminal influence from Johhny Foreigner and everything will be great.

Looking forward to Ringo cracking his first Special Brew and getting stuck into this one.

And opening a new box of tissues..........

It'll be another of his frantic Fridays.

Thought for the day...

modern professional football a form of slavery?

Discuss

Just another Basil post like all the others.
Must get tiring

Explain.

So if I'm reading this right the EU is solely to blame for British people exploiting EU citizens working in the UK?

Feels a bit like when people say that a girl's short skirt is to blame for her getting assaulted...

DefourFiveSix wrote:If it's not Joe Hart's fault...

Come on entertain me, surely one of the usual suspects can formulate an argument showing that modern day slavery's down to Joe Hart, or at the very least Besart Berisha.

AfloatinClaret wrote:Come on entertain me, surely one of the usual suspects can formulate an argument showing that modern day slavery's down to Joe Hart, or at the very least Besart Berisha.

I reckon Steve Cotterill will be embroiled in the conspiracy too.

Cotterill was afterall the best young English people smuggler outside the Premier League back in the day

It does make you wonder how the caring, sharing fruit/veg farm owners who employed these folks in considerable numbers didn't notice anything amiss with some members of their workforce.
I suppose the main priority for most would be making sure the picking and packing was done on time.

If the government had controlled immigration properly we wouldn't have these slave gangs in our country and no need for Brexit.

Win, win. But sadly they didn't and look at the state we're in now.

ClaretAndJew wrote:What are the statistics, facts and figures?

Over 3000 former slaves are now being cared for by the salvation army, who are contracted to supply housing and welfare by the UK government.

The figure for those in modern slavery is unknown. Last night's programmeshowed how these gangs organised things. It was horrendous.

Firthy wrote:If the government had controlled immigration properly we wouldn't have these slave gangs in our country and no need for Brexit.

Win, win. But sadly they didn't and look at the state we're in now.

Freedom of movement isn't an opt in or out if you are a member of the EU

evensteadiereddie wrote:It does make you wonder how the caring, sharing fruit/veg farm owners who employed these folks in considerable numbers didn't notice anything amiss with some members of their workforce.
I suppose the main priority for most would be making sure the picking and packing was done on time.

Because they were using labour from what appeared to be legitimate recruitment agencies

Falcon wrote:So if I'm reading this right the EU is solely to blame for British people exploiting EU citizens working in the UK?

Feels a bit like when people say that a girl's short skirt is to blame for her getting assaulted...

You ought to watch the programme. The documentary centred on a court case. They were exploited 100% by their countrymen. All the convicted were Polish.

The British companies were paying for them through "authorised agencies" but the money creamed off through bank accounts set up in the name of those exploited but emptied by the gangmasters.

Re Albanians that someone mentioned earlier..I believe they claim to be Greek as Greece now occupies land that was once Albania. But they are in the majority of cases here illegally and washing cars for a living.

turfytopper wrote:Because they were using labour from what appeared to be legitimate recruitment agencies

Are those legitimate recruitment agencies a bit like those alleged legitimate college's/universities/language schools that are actually just one room above a shop but allow people to apply for student visas and then disappear?

Legitimate in that nobody can be arsed regulating them as long as the fruit and veg remain relatively cheap.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:Are those legitimate recruitment agencies a bit like those alleged legitimate college's/universities/language schools that are actually just one room above a shop but allow people to apply for student visas and then disappear?

Visa mills. I worked in one of these when I moved back to the U.K. years ago. I had taught in some good language schools, but with the end of summer jobs became scarce, and the step down was huge. Some of my classes had sixty students enrolled, and I was scrupulous about roll call. Half the students were from Eastern Europe (before those countries joined), a quarter from South America, and the rest from all over. Nearly all were here primarily to work, and I was told that working in McDonalds in London paid more than their professions did in Poland (or wherever). I don’t think any were engaged in criminal activity though.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:Are those legitimate recruitment agencies a bit like those alleged legitimate college's/universities/language schools that are actually just one room above a shop but allow people to apply for student visas and then disappear?

No.
They were legitimate agencies that were infiltrated with a polish 'insider'. She (it was a woman) would register Polish 'slaves' it would have looked legitimate. As the fraud was multi layered. Bank accounts were created for slaves so they could be on a payroll...sadly the money was creamed off and the slaves received little or nothing.
Many of those coming from Poland were living rough over there, had criminal records so they could not present themselves to the authorities here