Three held on allegations of slave labour

THREE men have been arrested for alleged enslavement and trafficking offences after Eastern European immigrants were found to be working 80-hour weeks for £25 at a Rochdale factory.

The arrests were made as part of the second phase of Greater Manchester Police’s joint operation with Rochdale Council — Operation Retriever.

Yesterday officers and partner agency teams from Rochdale Council, the Home Office and HMRC, executed a warrant at a factory in Ings Lane, Rochdale.

Three men — aged 51, 43 and 40 — were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to require another person to perform forced or compulsory labour and conspiracy to commit trafficking offences.

Intelligence

A 24-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of immigration offences.

Yesterday’s action follows the Operation’s initial success in November, when 15 people across Greater Manchester were arrested and five charged for alleged involvement in a trafficking ring which sold a pregnant woman into a sham marriage and attempted to trick her into aborting her baby.

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