Five people suspected of recruiting and exploiting vulnerable Indian students who worked in care homes across north Wales have been handed slavery and trafficking risk orders (STRO).
An investigation was launched by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) after concerns were raised about the workers’ appearance, with reports they always appeared to be hungry.
The five defendants – Mathew Issac, 32, his wife, Jinu Cherian, 30, along with Eldhose Cherian, 25, Eldhose Kuriachan, 25, and Jacob Liju, 47 – were arrested between December 2021 and May 2022.
None have been issued with criminal charges but investigations are ongoing and they were each handed an STRO at Mold magistrates court on Thursday, preventing them for arranging travel for others and renting any property.
The GLAA said the defendants, originally from Kerala, had links to care homes in Abergele, Pwllheli, Llandudno and Colwyn Bay, either by working there themselves or through a relative who works there.
Issac and Cherian supplied workers through Alexa Care Solutions, a recruitment agency registered in May 2021.
Three months later, the modern slavery and exploitation helpline received reports that Indian workers employed by Alexa Care were not being paid correctly or were having their wages withheld.
When Issac and Cherian were arrested in December 2021, nine Indian workers were found sleeping on mattresses in cramped and unsanitary conditions at two addresses in the Colwyn Bay area.
Colleagues at the care homes where they were working reported them turning up “tired and smelling”, and saw them eating leftovers from residents’ meals.
The GLAA senior investigating officer Martin Plimmer said: “We are all aware that staffing levels have been a cause concern in the care sector for some time and have not been helped by the Covid pandemic. Unfortunately, where labour shortages exist, there is an increased risk of opportunists using the situation for their own financial gain, usually at the expense of workers that they are exploiting.”
There are 165,000 vacancies in the social care sector in England. The GLAA said it had identified more than 50 Indian students as being potential victims of modern slavery and labour abuse in the last 14 months.
Plimmer said: “Tackling the exploitation of workers in care homes is one of the GLAA’s top priorities, and this order is crucial in restricting the activities of those we suspect would otherwise commit slavery or trafficking offences,. Through our investigations, we have concluded that such an order is proportionate to protect further workers from being potentially exploited and abused.”
