Are migrant workers from around the world. Often, these workers have families to support back home — workers like joel. Joel was an experienced fisherman. In 2012, he secured a job through an agency in the philippines — working aboard a scallop boat for a fishing company in scotland. Joel would bejoined at the company by other filipino workers with similar ambitions. But you had no experience fishing or at sea at all? onlyjoel had fished before, yet here they all were, recruited through agencies, ready to go to sea. The men travelled months apart but it was the same journey to the same place — annan, a small town in scotland's southern coast and the premises of tn trawlers. Its owners, the nicholson family, have lived in the town for generations. They're in with the bricks. Its lead director, tom nicholson. He owns much of the harbour here and lives in a substantial compound on the waterfront. At the time, he ran a fishing operation worth over £4 million. The filipino men were here to work for him on his boats. And did you see those documents again? his contract — to work aboard a vessel called the mattanja. But the company put him on a different boat — the philomena. Joel went to sea. But the others who'd arrived, despite being contracted to fish, were told to stay ashore, cramped in a caravan. Their visas didn't allow them to work on land but the company had them doing jobs at the yard and at tom nicholson's house — not what they'd signed up for. What were you doing in those three weeks? joel was at sea, but he soon found himself working way beyond his contracted hours. Joel was contracted to work a 48—hour week. But he said he would regularly work 18 hours a day, seven days a week — breaching uk regulations on working hours and rest time. The other filipino men were soon at sea aboard tn boats. All the men interviewed by this programme say they were overworked and sleep deprived. On the boats, they said, supplies of food and fresh drinking water ran low. Joel says he and the deck crew would eat tomatoes to quench their thirst and when those ran out, they would drink diluting juice without water. At tn, joel was earning around £660 a month, the equivalent of £3. 44 an hour — well short of the uk minimum wage, but that didn't apply to trawlermen at the time. Human trafficking is defined as the movement of a person from one place to another with the intent to exploit them. Because of the transit visas, these workers have to live and stay on the fishing vessel because they don't have immigration status. They're effectively trapped. And because they're worried about their immigration status and they don't want to lose theirjob because they're from countries where even a low, under minimum wage salary for the uk is quite a lot of money, they're in this vulnerable position where they can be coerced and basically find themselves in these forced labour situations, which we come across on a very regular basis. August 22, 2012. It was night—time. Joel was at sea on the philomena, trawling for scallops north of ireland. He was asked to repair a broken spring on the ship's heavy equipment. The sea was choppy, the waves high. Joel was unconscious for 10—15 minutes. He'd sustained a head injury — one that required medical care. The skipper that night was toer, son of the company owner, tom nicholson. He called his father for advice asjoel lay inside bleeding. They then exchanged a series of text messages. On tom snr�*s instruction, the fishing continued. It was a full 11 hours before tom jr turned the boat around and headed for port. The boat finally docked at troon in ayrshire and joel was taken to hospital. His wound was glued shut more than 22 hours after the injury. The doctor who treated him said the scar will be permanent. Joel quit tn trawlers. It was his last day working for tom nicholson. Police intervened. In december 2012, detectives entered tn properties. Eleazar and gilbert were taken from vessels. Jovito was found working at the yard. At least 18 filipino men came off tn vessels and were referred to the home office's national referral mechanism, the nrm — the system for determining whether a person has been the victim of human trafficking or modern slavery. The home office examined evidence from the police and other agencies and checked the filipinos' accounts against key indicators. These include restriction of movement, injuries, excessive hours, no days off, being forced or deceived into working in poor conditions and little or no payment. Each of the men was recognised by the home office as a victim of modern slavery. There's good employers in the uk that bring in migrant workers and are doing the right thing and have always followed the rules. And then, the reality is the immigration issue has basically created this power imbalance that means if you're a ruthless and greedy operator, you can very easily find workers who are in a very vulnerable position and can't and won't speak out when they're being exploited and abused. The men would begin a long wait forjustice as tn trawlers was charged with offences and put through the courts. At the same time, tn trawlers and its sister companies kept operating. The company moved its recruiting ground from east asia to west africa and to india. And how. . . ? how old are you, vishal? vishal was an experienced seafarer. In november 2017, he arrived in london on a transit visa tojoin an oceangoing belgian tanker, the waasmunster. He was to work on board for 15 months in the engine room. The meeting point was at milford haven in wales. But his agent called from india and told him instead to travel to the south coast of england. There, he was met by two men. So, you arrive at the harbour and you see the ship? what boat was it? the waasmunster really was waiting near milford haven. But the vessel vishal was taken to at southwick was not the waasmunster. Instead, it was a much smaller boat — a tn scallop trawler called the noordzee. This is where he was told he would work and live. Vishal says that, out of fear of the police and deportation, he got to work. The story resembles the filipinos' accounts. Vishal claims food was scarce, the hours were excessive and he was never paid for any of it. All this despite having never fished a day in his life. Did you not complain? did you not. . . ? two ghanaian men, augustus and gershon, were also working in the tn fleet at the time. Each of them was earning £850 a month and £50 cash in hand on board. Again, though not illegal, this was well under uk minimum wage. Did you ever feel like leaving? december 6, 2017. Vishal was working aboard the noordzee, fishing in the english channel. Nearby, gershon and augustus were aboard another tn boat, the sea lady. Augustus had suffered a head injury. The sea lady turned and headed for portsmouth, where he was taken to the hospital. Gershon, augustus and their foreign crewmates were removed from the boat by police. The head injury sparked another criminal investigation into tn trawlers. In 2022, a decision was made to take no further action in vishal�*s case. Prosecutors also dropped human trafficking allegations relating to augustus. They are considering whether other crimes were committed against him at sea. In october 2022, ten years afterjoel�*s injury, tom nicholson finally appeared at court. He and the company were charged with failing to get swift care forjoel. Nicholson was also charged with withholding his filipino workers' passports, as well as other documents. In court, for the first time, we heard details of the text exchange between father and son on the day ofjoel�*s accident. Tom snr replied: the next morning, toer sends a flurry of texts to his father saying he's bringing joel to shore. His response: so, that was a blow—by—blow account. Nicholson admitted the first charge relating tojoel. The crown accepted his not—guilty plea for the passport charges, which meant the men didn't get the chance to testify in court. The crown office and procurator and fiscal service said it's it said it recognises the time taken in dealing with these complex and challenging matters has been:. . And it deals with every case on its own individual facts and circumstances. We contacted the home office. A uk government spokesperson said the country has: it added that the border force works to ensure action is taken against those who exploit vulnerable people in our waters. Tn trawlers is now a dormant company. The philomena is no longerfishing. Sea lady and noordzee have been renamed. Over the course of our three—year investigation, we've heard allegations of labour exploitation, mistreatment and claims of modern slavery at companies run by tom nicholson. We put these allegations in writing to the tn director and his son, toer. In a statement, tn group said: all foreign workers were recruited through: the overwhelming experience of our workers was that they were: we dispute many of the accounts put to us. We always provided food and accommodation to our workers, and they were always free to come and go when ashore. We absolutely refute any allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking. Referring tojoel�*s head injury, it said, we did not always get everything right, and: after administering first aid and medication, he was brought ashore for medical treatment. But we regret the delay and we fell short on that occasion. We've accepted responsibility, compensated and we apologise to that individual. Tom nicholson snr didn't answer some of the questions we put to him aboutjoel�*s pay or vishal ending up on the wrong boat, so we paid him a visit at his yard. We're looking to speak to tom nicholson. Indistinct speech we're from the bbc. We just want to ask him a couple of questions. Hold on. We've got some documents to show him — documents that show that he was underpaying his foreign workers. £3. 44 an hour. £3. 44 an hour — that's not including the overtime. We've got a letter of invitation here for a man who was supposed to be working on an ocean—going tanker. He ended up working on one of his fishing boats. So, we'd like to put that to him. Mr nicholson! come out and have a chat with us. Will we do it over the intercom? want to come out and have a chat? just want to show you some documents, mr nicholson. He's in there. He's shut the door. Ok, let's get out of here. The filipino men in this story have leave to remain in the uk. They can work, provide for their loved ones — all they wanted in the first place. The ghanaians' leave to remain has expired. They stayed to getjustice and now face going home with nothing. And for all the men who've just told you their stories, the experience of working for tn trawlers and with the british justice system has left a bitter taste. What would you say to tn trawlers about the way they treated you? hello. Well, friday brought some storms to southern parts of the uk, even a report of a damaging tornado. But at the same time, some parts of the country were also quite sunny and warm. In kew gardens, the temperatures reached 25 celsius. The days ahead are looking very different — it's turning unsettled, it's turning autumnal. A jet stream will send weather fronts in our direction. I think there's a fair amount of rain on the way, particularly across the southern half of the uk and this time next week, some parts of the country could be around ten degrees cooler by day. Now, in terms of the rainfall this weekend, you can see where most of it will be. This is just the potential for rainfall here — perhaps 50mm or so in some parts of england and wales, so it is a mixed bag this weekend. Certainly some sunshine on the way, particularly across northern parts of the uk, but also heavy showers at times. So, through the early hours, maybe some showers returning to southern parts of the uk, some cracks of thunder. It's not a cold morning by any means — temperatures of around 14 in london, typically around 12 or 13 whether you're north or south. So, further showers on the way on saturday, particularly across england and wales. Later in the day, they could become heavy and move a little bit further north. But at the same time, a lot of sunshine in the forecast around the irish sea for northern ireland, for western parts of scotland — 18 degrees in glasgow — but i think quite cloudy and much cooler along that north sea coast. And then, notice the showers again here in the northwest through the course of saturday evening. And then on sunday, the showers become more widespread and heavier across parts of england and wales but again, the best of our weather on sunday will be in the northwest of the uk. So, once again, sunny spells for the western isles and not looking so bad there in belfast with a bit of sunshine too. But not so great for the south with all the cloud and the rain. —— but not so great further south with all the cloud and the rain. Now on monday, low pressure is over the uk. That again spells a fair amount of cloud, outbreaks of rain and the air will start to come in from the north, so the temperatures will start to drop from northern scotland — only 12 degrees. In the south, still relatively warm. We're holding on to the mid, possibly the high teens. So, here's the outlook for the week ahead. You can see that big drop in the temperature in the south. 14 degrees in london. But look at edinburgh — by tuesday, it's only around 11 degrees with showers. That's it. Bye— bye. Live from washington, this is bbc news. Hezbollah confirms a senior military commander is among those killed after israel's latest attacks on the militant group. Election board officials in the us state of georgia pass a rule requiring votes to be hand—counted in november's presidential election. And new numbers show that more than 70,000 russian military personnel have died in the war in ukraine. Hello. I'm helena humphrey. It's great to have you with us. We begin in lebanon, and fears over escalating violence between the militant group hezbollah and israel and for what it could mean for the region. Hezbollah has now confirmed the death of a top military commander, ibrahim aqil, after israel struck a high—rise block of flats in the lebanese capital beirut on friday. Ibrahim aqil is considered the most high—profile member