UK clothing unit with Indian workers faces slavery probe

London, July 5

A clothing factory named Jaswal Fashions based in the eastern England city of Leicester faces a modern slavery investigation after an undercover reporter alleged sweatshop-like conditions and below minimum wage payments to its workers, many of them from India.

According to ‘The Sunday Times’, its undercover reporter found that workers were being paid as little as 3.50 pounds an hour as against the UK’s legal minimum wage of 8.72 pounds an hour and was also operating last week during the localised coronavirus lockdown imposed on the city.

Won’t tolerate labour exploitation

The allegations are “truly appalling”. I will not tolerate sick criminals forcing innocent people into slave labour and a life of exploitation. Let this be a warning to those who are exploiting people in sweatshops. —Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel described the allegations as “truly appalling” and commended the undercover investigation for its role in “uncovering such abhorrent practices”. “I will not tolerate sick criminals forcing innocent people into slave labour and a life of exploitation,” said Patel. “Let this be a warning to those who are exploiting people in sweatshops like these for their own commercial gain. This is just the start. What you are doing is illegal, it will not be tolerated and we are coming after you,” she said. Last week, the senior Cabinet minister had directed the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to investigate modern slavery allegations in Leicester’s clothing factories after alarm was raised that they were a key source of the spike in coronavirus infections in the region, which led to England’s first localised Covid-19 lockdown for the city.

“Within the last few days NCA officers, along with Leicestershire police and other partner agencies, attended a number of business premises in the Leicester area to assess concerns of modern slavery and human trafficking,” the NCA said, which is looking into the undercover reports.

The newspaper’s undercover reporter spent two days at Jaswal Fashions, a factory which supplies garments to one of Britain’s fastest-growing online retailer Boohoo. — PTI