Arrest made in modern slavery investigation
Officers from the GLAA and Suffolk Police arrested a 20-year-old Romanian man in Ipswich after receiving reports that another young Romanian man had been exploited by the suspect through threats of physical violence, debt bondage and other controlling behaviour. The suspect is currently in custody being questioned, with evidence seized following a search by the authorities.
According to a GLAA statement, the potential victim had been working in the food processing sector and other industries at the time of the alleged exploitation.
He is now receiving specialist support after being accepted into the Government’s National Referral Mechanism, a framework for ensuring modern slavery victims are given the help they need.
In October 2018, a man and a woman were convicted of supplying illegal workers to food factories in Leicester and were served with Labour Market Enforcement Orders, while in the same month a man in Wales was arrested on suspicion of exploiting workers as an unlicensed gangmaster in the fresh food packaging and processing sector.
