HOMELESS BEING TURNED INTO ‘MODERN SLAVES’ BY CRIMINAL GANGS SAYS CHARITY

Gangs are preying on vulnerable people sleeping rough in UK cities and forcing them to work for nothing Rough sleepers are being turned into “modern-day slaves” by criminal gangs operating across the country, according to one of the UK’s leading charities helping people living on the streets.

 

Homeless men on the steps of a theatre in London, which is among cities in which criminal gangs have targeted people sleeping rough for forced labour. Photograph: Ian Nicholson/PA

The homeless, forced to sleep on the mean streets of Great Britain are euphemistically refered to as "rough sleepers". Holy newsspeak! 

To me the expression brings about visuals of sleeping in the wilds on a survivor type basis. Where I live, that means being visited by the occasional wandering bear or curious mountain lion. However, in England, "rough sleeping" can lead to far greater dangers than those posed by the innocent omnivores and carnivores of the wilds. 

Observer

Sep 17, 2011

By Jamie Doward and Alex Binley

Thames Reach says it is aware of reports that gangs are targeting homeless people in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Southampton, Dover, Leicester and Luton.

The revelation comes after a raid on a travelers’ site in Bedfordshire by police last weekend that led to the arrest of four men and a woman on suspicion of slavery offences. Police said the alleged “slaves” were mostly English, but some were of eastern European origin. Detectives said they were all vulnerable and were either homeless people or alcoholics who had been recruited by “gangmasters” offering money.

But according to Thames Reach this was not an isolated incident. The charity said it has been contacted by 22 central and eastern European rough sleepers who had run away from gangs this year. It said some were fearful for their lives.

“We have been coming across some extremely disturbing reports from homeless people who have been ‘enslaved’ by criminal gangs across the UK,” said Mike Nicholas, a spokesman for the charity. 

“Increasing numbers of rough sleepers, many from central and eastern Europe, have told us how they have been held against their will, beaten and forced to work without wages before escaping and ending up on the streets of London.”

Earlier this year Thames Reach staff found a group of six rough sleepers linked to a slavery ring operating out of London’s King’s Cross that sparked a police investigation. 

The charity said the men had come from the Czech Republic and were being exploited by a Czech family based in Birmingham.

One of the men, “Michal”, told the charity he had been lured to the UK on false promises of paid work. He claimed that before flying he was drugged with what he now suspects was a sedative, which the gang claimed was a painkiller to help with his bad back.

He was then driven to a house in Birmingham where he lived alongside nine other victims of the four-strong gang who were taken each day by minibus to work at a bakery in Luton.

Michal told Thames Reach staff that he worked as a “slave” and all his money was taken from him by the gang who beat him regularly. He claims he was given poor food such as bread and butter once a day and that the gang stole his ID and opened a credit card in his name.

Another man from the Czech Republic, Wojtek, told Thames Reach he was living on the streets of London, relying on handouts, when he was approached at a soup run near Victoria with the offer of a job and accommodation.

He was given a coach ticket to Leicester where he claims a gang stole his ID and bank and credit card accounts. He was told that if he tried to escape he would be caught and beaten.

The claims shine new light on the influx of eastern European immigrants to the UK. While the number of rough sleepers from the UK is falling in London, the number of people from central and Eastern Europe has steadily risen.

Thames Reach has helped over 1,000 central and eastern European people return home since early 2009. It says another 1,000 were counted on the streets last year. It says some of those who returned were victims of violent assaults by gang leaders.

“We need to alert homeless services and the people using them to the threat,” Nicholas said.

“The embassies and police also need to take the issue more seriously, ensuring the victims get assistance and that this recently exposed menace is tackled. Life as a rough sleeper can be extremely dangerous but the sheer criminality and brutal nature of these gangs has taken the threat of living on the streets to a new level.”

SIXTEEN STATISTICS WHICH PROVE THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE ABSOLUTELY SEETHING WITH ANGER

Welcome to Main Street, Tent City: The community where ever person has lost their job and home because of the U.S. financial crisis

 

The Economic Collapse

According to a whole host of polls and surveys,

the American people are incredibly angry right now.

The American people are hopping mad at the government,

the American people are hopping mad about the economy

and

the American people are hopping mad about the direction that this country is headed.

This is shower room that serves the tent city that the homeless people have made by drilling to the natural water table and then pumping it up to the heater so the residents can wash in the woods

Never before in modern U.S. history have the American people been this angry.  There is vast disagreement about what the solutions to our problems actually are, but what everyone can agree on is that the American people are absolutely seething with anger right now. 

The statistics that you are about to read are mind blowing. 

We used to be such a happy country.

Once upon a time we were one of the happiest places on earth.

But as the economy has fallen to pieces 

anger has been steadily growing.

If something is not done to turn the economy around eventually this anger is going to erupt in frightening and unpredictable ways.

The American people are not equipped to handle hard times.  We are incredibly spoiled.  Most of us have only known good times, and most of us have been taught that we will have endless prosperity all of our lives because we live in the greatest nation on earth.

Well, "the greatest nation on earth" is about to get a massive wake up call.  We are up to our eyeballs in debt and we are bleeding jobs, businesses and wealth at an astounding pace.  Our economy is dying right in front of our eyes, and most Americans have been so "dumbed-down" that they don't even realize what is happening.

But what most Americans do know is that things are "bad" and they want someone to "fix" things.  They know that something is "not right" and they want things to go back to the way things used to be. 

The longer it takes for things to return to "normal",

the angrier they are going to get.

The following are 16 statistics which prove that the American people are absolutely seething with anger right now....

#1 A new Washington Post poll has found that a whopping 78 percent of Americans are dissatisfied "with the way this country’s political system is working".

#2 That same poll found that only 26 percent of Americans believe that the federal government can solve the economic problems that we are now facing.

Getting by: Elwood Hires, 39, and Cynthia Berlinger, 33, inside their recently completed makeshift shelter in the woods

#3 Gallup says that Barack Obama's job approval rating has hit an all-time low of 39%.

#4 According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, Congress has a disapproval rating of 82%.

#5 A new Rasmussen survey has found that 85 percent of Americans believe that members of Congress "are more interested in helping their own careers than in helping other people."

#6 That same survey found that 46 percent of the American people believe that most members of Congress are corrupt.  That figure was a new all-time high.

#7 According to a different Rasmussen survey, only 17 percent of Americans now believe that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed.

#8 A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll discovered that 73 percent of the American people believe that the nation is "on the wrong track".

#9 A recent poll taken by Rasmussen found that 68 percent of Americans believe that we are actually in a recession right now.

#10 According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans that lack confidence in U.S. banks is now at an all-time high of 36%.

#11 U.S. consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in 30 years.

#12 According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 90 percent of Americans believe that the economy is performing poorly.

Destitute: Charlie Errickson, 54, sat eating his lunch outside his shelter as he struggles to survive

#13 That same poll found that approximately 80 percent of Americans believe that it is "difficult" to find a job these days.

#14 According to one recent poll, 39 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy has now entered a "permanent decline".

#15 Another recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that it is likely that another great Depression will begin within the next 12 months.

#16 According to a brand new Rasmussen survey, 48% of Americans believe that reductions in government spending are "at least somewhat likely" to result in civil unrest inside the United States.

So why doesn't the government step in and spend a whole bunch of money and make everything all better?

Well, the problem is that we have done this time after time before and now we are broke.

We have been living way, way beyond our means for decades and now the bills are coming due.

David Walker, the former Comptroller General of the United States, has been warning about our debt problem for years.  Walker says that the United States is heading for a "sudden and very painful" economic collapse....

"Here’s the bottom line. If you take the total liabilities of the United States ~ public debt, unfunded pensions, retiree health care, under funding with regard to social security, with regard to medicare, a range of commitments and contingencies ~ as of September 30 2010 we would have had to have had $61.6 trillion dollars in the bank in order to be able to defease those obligations."

 

The cold, hard truth is that the U.S. national debt should have been addressed many years ago when it was still relatively small.

At this point, there is no solution to our national debt problem under our current financial system.

Most state governments are also facing huge financial problems.  The state government of Illinois is so broke at this point that it can't even afford to bury the poor people that are dying.

But Illinois is not alone.  All over the country, state and local governments have been implementing austerity measures.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state and local governments have slashed more than half a million jobs since August 2008.

That is a whole lot of good jobs that aren't there anymore.

But government debt is not the only debt problem that we are facing. 

Personal debt is also a raging crisis.

According to USDebtClock.org, the total amount of personal debt in the United States is now over 16 trillion dollars.  The exploding levels of personal debt have created a tremendous amount of stress in households from coast to coast.

When I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was in the middle class.  But today the middle class is shrinking at lightning speed.

According to author David DeGraw, 17.3% of all Americans were living in poverty during 2009.  Not only that, DeGraw also says that 9 major U.S. cities have a poverty rate of over 25 percent.

Can you imagine that?

In fact, there are some cities such as Detroit where the poverty rate is over 35 percent.

It is hard to believe what is happening to America.  Today, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.  That number has increased by approximately 12 percent in the last year alone.

There are currently 34 million Americans that need a full-time job.  Unemployment is rampant and there is intense competition even for part-time jobs that pay minimum wage.

So where did all of the jobs go?

Well, as I have written about previously, globalism is absolutely devastating our economy.  Millions of our jobs have been shipped to countries where labor is far, far cheaper and they aren't coming back.

Ramshackle: This home looks barely able to stand up but still houses a homeless person, who has also brought their car to the community

In addition, millions of Americans that do still have jobs are also deeply struggling right now.  There are millions and millions of Americans that are working part-time jobs because that is all that they can find right now.  Millions of other Americans are flat broke and are discovering that their paychecks are "shrinking" due to inflation.  Wages have barely risen while prices for food and other necessities are skyrocketing.

Most families are really struggling to get by right now.

According to the Washington Post, the average yearly income of the bottom 90 percent of U.S. income earners is $31,244.

It is really hard to pay a mortgage and feed a family on that income.

The only people that seem to be doing well are at the very top.

The average yearly income of the top 0.1% of U.S. income earners is 5.6 million dollars.

Not that making money is a bad thing, but when an economic system funnels all of the rewards to the very top you know something is deeply broken.

The poorest 50% of all Americans now own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

A lot of poor Americans have literally fallen off the map.  The Daily Mail recently did a feature on one tent city that has been constructed deep in a forest in New Jersey....

In scenes reminiscent of the Great Depression these are the ramshackle homes of the desperate and destitute U.S. families who have set up their own 'Tent City' only an hour from Manhattan.

More than 50 homeless people have joined the community within New Jersey's forests as the economic crisis has wrecked their American dream.

You can see shocking pictures of this tent city right here.

So it is no wonder why so many Americans are so angry.

If you lost your job or your home you would probably be angry too.

Most Americans just want to be able to go to work, make a decent living, pay the mortgage and provide for their families.

But in America today that is becoming increasingly difficult to do.

Nowhere to go: Homeless Burt Haut, 43 and his wife Barbara Haut, 48 outside their makeshift shelter in the tent city in the woods in Lakewood, New Jersey

Our economy is a giant mess and the American people are becoming very angry.

If the economy gets even worse, they are going to become even angrier.

Storm clouds are gathering on the horizon.

Things are about to get very, very interesting.