2:00

What does slavery look like today? And

2:02

how is it hiding in plain sight? I'm

2:05

William Lee Adams, and this is What in the

2:08

World from the BBC World Service. More

2:15

people are enslaved today than at any other

2:17

time in history. The exploitation

2:19

takes many forms. Forced labor,

2:22

sex trafficking, forced marriage, and

2:24

debt bondage. That's when people

2:26

are tricked into working for little or no money

2:28

to repay a debt. But

2:30

modern slavery is essentially when a person

2:33

is controlled and exploited for labor and

2:35

profit. To learn more

2:37

about this, let's hear from John

2:39

Ironmonger, a BBC investigative reporter. His

2:42

report uncovered a modern slavery operation

2:44

here in the UK that went

2:46

undetected for almost four years. John,

2:49

hi. Hello. So your

2:51

investigation reveals a pretty shocking case

2:53

of modern slavery happening right under

2:55

people's noses. Could you tell us

2:57

a bit more about how these

2:59

victims ended up being trafficked to

3:01

the UK? Yes.

3:04

So we investigated one

3:07

global criminal network, which was led

3:09

by two brothers, Ernest and Stenniak

3:12

Drevanok. And between them

3:14

and various gang members, they targeted

3:16

people who were often addicted to

3:18

drugs, homeless, living on the streets

3:20

in a city called Kalawivarri in

3:22

the Czech Republic. And

3:24

they lured them or tricked

3:27

them really to the UK

3:30

under the false pretense that they would be

3:32

given a well-paid job. And then they were

3:34

usually put on a bus to Victoria Station

3:36

in London, collected by gang members who put

3:38

them to work almost instantly at a branch

3:40

of McDonald's and at a factory making pitter

3:42

breads for some of the UK's biggest

3:45

supermarkets. You've mentioned a

3:47

very legitimate business, McDonald's. I'm curious, how

3:49

did they get the job in the

3:52

first place? At that stage, is there

3:54

no screening? Yeah,

3:57

I mean, they had a well-formed...

4:00

operation. And that would involve a

4:04

woman who already worked at McDonald's, so

4:06

the partner of Ernest Drevena, already had

4:08

a job there. And she would complete

4:10

the sort of online tests that you

4:12

have to do. And they were able

4:14

to infiltrate the McDonald's. And also, Ernest

4:18

Drevena's brother Stenjek had good connections

4:20

with the bakery making pitter

4:23

breads in London and could send

4:25

a conveyor belt of victims really straight into

4:28

work on the factory floor with nine victims

4:30

in total worked across both sides. In

4:33

your report, you mentioned some really

4:35

shocking details, red flags, if you

4:37

will, that were overlooked. Could you talk

4:39

us through some of those? Yes,

4:43

that's right. So there were quite a

4:45

few. Some of them were really clear

4:47

red flags. The key one,

4:50

I think, for instance, is that the victims

4:52

were not actually receiving their wages from

4:54

these employers. So instead, all

4:57

of their wages were being paid into three

5:00

bank accounts that were controlled by the

5:02

Drevena. At one point, the wages of

5:04

four men were

5:07

being paid into Ernest Drevena's bank account.

5:09

So that's a red flag. In

5:11

addition, at the McDonald's, the men worked really

5:13

extreme hours. And we're talking up to 100

5:16

hours a week at times. One man worked

5:18

a 30 hour shift. An

5:21

employee who worked alongside the victims told me

5:24

they were so tired they would take cigarette

5:26

breaks just to snatch five minutes sleep. And

5:28

excessive overtime is one of the well-known signs

5:30

of exploitation, according to the United

5:32

Nations. And finally, we touched on

5:34

it before, the victims spoke little to no

5:36

English. And so they were really relying on

5:38

the gang members to secure their jobs for

5:40

them and even interpret for them during job

5:43

interviews. That's another red flag. And

5:45

we're talking about people here in a new

5:47

culture, not speaking the language. Did they ever

5:49

convey to you that they wanted to escape,

5:52

that they saw the red flags? This

5:56

was a really confusing situation for them.

5:58

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