We aren’t slaves... give us our jobs back!
100 East Europeans ‘rescued’ in police slavery crackdown say they love their work (no wonder, some can earn up to £1,200 a week)
A HIGH-profile operation to tackle ‘modern slavery’ backfired yesterday – as 100 migrant workers whose boss had been arrested told police: ‘We’re not slaves, let us work.’
A crowd of men and women gathered outside a police station to protest after a dawn raid at the flower farm where they work.
The Romanians and Lithuanians said that, far from experiencing abuse, they lived and worked in ‘very good conditions’.
Officers had questioned about 200 pickers at the farm on Cornwall’s Lizard peninsula. But, of these, just two women and 12 men aged from 17 to 40 ‘elected to seek help’ as potential victims.
The workers are said to be able to make up to £240 a day. The farm is run by Allen Scrimshaw, 68, and his 41-year-old son Wolfe, who were both arrested and questioned over ‘modern slavery offences’.
Yesterday the family was furious at being labelled ‘gangmasters’. Police were said to have seized all the cash on the farm, but the majority of the 200 workers were back picking flowers yesterday as if nothing had happened.
The daffodil farm is one of the largest in the UK, responsible for transporting about 60million stems a season worldwide.
A spokesman for the farm said: ‘It’s hard work and you have to be physically fit. Our best picker makes £240 a day on a good day, it’s 8p per bunch. That is our best picker, but they can earn a good wage, much more than they would back home. They have a games room, a recreation room and they have access to the internet.’
Their outcry prompted Shaun Sawyer, the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, to defend the operation. He said: ‘We have seen in Cornwall that there is exploitation of migrant workers by organised crime.
There were reports in to police of alleged offences of modern slavery. There comes a point where we have to intervene.’ Commenting on the protest, he suggested that the workers ‘don’t understand’ the allegations and said that their demonstration had been ‘good, legitimate democracy’. Dozens of the workers from RH Scrimshaw and Sons drove in minibuses to Camborne Police Station on Thursday evening in a show of solidarity.
On behalf of the group, Romanian Marina Alina-Florantina – one of the few English speakers – said: ‘Our boss has been arrested and we think he has done nothing wrong. We have very good conditions.
‘I’ve been working here for four years. If it was bad I wouldn’t work here, we wouldn’t bring our friends and families here.’
She said they picked flowers for seven to nine hours each day, depending on the weather. The men and women live in caravans on the site and conditions were ‘very good’, she said. Staff have use of a games room, recreation room, free use of washing machines and showers, and access to the internet at the farm, which is part-funded by the EU, according to a sign in the manager’s officer.
Miss Alina-Florentina said they were not protesting in fear of losing work but because ‘the boss’ was a good man.
She recalled an incident when he took workers who were sick to hospital. She added: ‘We stay on the farm. Without our boss we don’t have any work.
‘We’ve not been told anything. We just know the boss is under arrest.’ She said that they had worked in Germany, Denmark and Spain and ‘here it is the best’.
Asked if they were ‘slaves’, she replied: ‘No, no, no.’
The crowd eventually dispersed after Wolfe Scrimshaw was released at around 10pm. Police said they had arrested three men aged 68, 41 and 49 at Bosahan Farm, Manaccan. Yesterday all three had been released under investigation pending further inquiries.
Detective Inspector Gail Windsor said the 200 workers had been taken to a reception centre in an operation that also involved Cornwall County Council, the Salvation Army, NHS and Red Cross. She said: ‘Our understanding is that these are seasonal workers and
‘He has done nothing wrong’
that the season is between January and Easter.
‘ We believe they’ve been recruited in their native countries. Over the last couple of weeks we had information that made us concerned about the people working on this site and the conditions they were living and working in.’
Judith Scrimshaw, 66, said her son Wolfe and husband Allen, a diabetic, were innocent.
She added: ‘ We are not gangmasters, we moved down here from Lincolnshire to get away from that.
‘Ask anyone around here about us and they will tell you we are good people. This is all libellous. The National Farmers Union are looking into legal proceedings.’
Lithuanian Marius Alsauskas, 25, who has spent nine seasons on the farm for three months at a time, said: ‘There are a lot of facilities and I really like it. It is very good money and I can earn over £100 on a good day.
‘What happened yesterday was terrible. Wolfe is giving us a job which is why we all went to the police station to support him. No one is pushing anyone to come here and you can leave at any time so how are you being treated like a slave?’
Mr Alsauskas said the migrants lived in caravans housing about four or five people in each.
‘Today I earned £80 in four-anda-half hours. It depends on the weather, if it is freezing I might only do one day, but if it is just cold like today then maybe four days. I was working on another farm for one year and the conditions were terrible.
‘But here it is perfect. It is all clean and you can find everything you need from a home.’ Commenting on the small number who had taken up the offer of help from the authorities, he added: ‘All people are different - 14 people were not happy but nearly 200 are happy to be here and earn money.’
Agencies offered all the migrants temporary accommodation, medical treatment and other employment opportunities. However, it appears that a vast majority declined and simply returned to work instead.
Cornwall County Council said that the farm’s workers were being supported and were ‘not in any trouble’.
‘It is very good money’