Mohammed Rafiq, 60, resident of of Thorncliffe Road, Staincliffe and owner of a bed-making factory, Kozee Sleep, in Dewsbury who had employed large numbers of Hungarians as a “slave workforce” to supply beds to top high-street retailers has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for people trafficking.

He employed large numbers of Hungarians for cheap slave labour, making them work up to 16 hours a day for as little as £10 per week. One of his employee told, he felt helpless and vulnerable and like a prisoner while working at bed-making firm.

Man was promised for work in England and told he could earn good wages after his arrival in UK. When he arrived in UK, he was told he would have to work for the firm for about 10 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, packaging mattresses and loading lorries for just £10 per week and a packet of tobacco to pay off his travel expenses.

About a dozens of employees who were imported on work visas, were kept in a 3 bed room house together.

Mohammed Rafiq had promised them a good job with good package in Hungary, but after he bring them in UK, he treated them like slaves.

Original News Source: Examiner