Anniversary of the second World War Operation known as Market Garden an attempt by allied troops to capture key bridges in the netherlands. Now on bbc news, slavery at sea. The men youre about to meet are all recognised victims of modern slavery. They came to work as fishermen in the uk in search of a better life. Instead, they say they were mistreated, exploited, trafficked. For the first time, they tell their stories. One in three Uk Trawlermen 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 . 0nlyjoel 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 scotlands southern coast and the premises of Tn Trawlers. Its owners, the nicholson family, have lived in the town for generations. Theyre 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 the vessel called the mattanja. But the company put him on a different boat the philomena. Joel went to sea. But the Others Whod arrived, despite being contracted to fish, were told to stay ashore, cramped in a caravan. Their visas didnt allow them to work on land but the company had them doing jobs at the yard and at Tom Nicholsons house, not what theyd 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. 0n 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 didnt 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 dont have Immigration Status. Theyre effectively trapped. And because theyre worried about their Immigration Status and they dont want to lose theirjob because theyre from countries where even a low, under minimum Wage Salary for the uk is quite a lot of money, theyre 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 thephilomena, trawling for Scallops North of ireland. He was asked to repair a broken spring on the ships heavy equipment. The sea was choppy, the waves high. Joel was unconscious for 10 15 minutes. Hed sustained a Head Injury one that required medical care. The skipper that night was Tom Jr, 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. 0n 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 Offices 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. Theres 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 youre a ruthless and greedy operator, you can very easily find workers who are in a very vulnerable Position And Cant and wont speak out when theyre 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, Tom Jr 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 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 we contacted the Home Office. A Uk Government spokesperson said the country has it added that the Border Force works to . 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, we all foreign workers were recruited through of our workers was that they were we dispute many of the accounts put to us. We to our workers and they were . When ashore. We referring to joel� s Head Injury, it said, we did not always get everything right, and we . In 2012, when . While we were at sea. After administering first Aid And Medication but we . 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. 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 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 want to come out and have a chat . And have a chat . Just want to show you some just want to show you some he� s shut the door. Documents, mr nicholson. Documents, mr nicholson. He� s in there 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 get justice 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 Britishjustice System has left a bitter taste. Good afternoon. More scenes like those behind me expected notjust today, but for sunday and monday across england and wales in particular. But in contrast, we� ve got some decent spells of sunshine further North And West, particularly across highland and grampian, scotland. There is a little bit of fog around the western isles, the Northern Isles and certainly for the North Sea coast, and it� s running in through the Central Belt, so it might well not clear the Central Lowlands during the rest of the day. Lots of sunshine. Northern ireland, north western parts of england and central and eastern england. But we have had a cluster of storms and 1 Or 2 could brew up elsewhere again in the south of england, possibly1 Or 2 in east anglia. But it� s these areas where we� re likely to see the highest temperatures. Again, it was a warm start, of course, and a warm day, 24, 25, but we could see 21 in the Northwest Highlands as well in that sunshine. Now it� s going to turn fresher here in the highlands overnight. A little bit of Mist And Fog and more generally that low cloud will meander backing off the North Sea. But look at the rain and the thunderstorms further south. It� s likely that they� ll start to become more widespread. The low pressure bringing them closing in. So for most of us, another warm night and a fairly damp start to the day in some parts tomorrow. Grey from the mist and the drizzle, or indeed from those downpours. And it� s primarily england and wales where we� ll see those most impactful amounts of rainfall. Hazardous travel conditions. Lots of spray in excess water as well. You can see this is where the Computer Model thinks we� ll see the wettest weather through saturday, sunday and monday. It� s primarily england and wales. The coin does flip later in the week and i� ll tell you about that later. But you can see don� t take this quite literally, but you can see more cloud around across england and wales through tomorrow and certainly more widespread outbreaks of rain, some thundery downpours, whilst further North And West again, the low cloud clears back to the east coast, hopeful that it� ll clear away from the Central Belt as well, but probably not quite as warm tomorrow as today, particularly in the south, because we� ve got more cloud and probably more Showery Rain around this area of low pressure, which is still meandering across england and wales on monday, some uncertainty as to how far north it� s going to go, and there� s that rain coming late in the day into the north as well. And behind that it� s likely to turn a little Bit Cooler as we head through the middle part of the week. We could have a blast of fairly significant winds wednesday on as well, but you can see from really tuesday on there� s more Chance Of Rain being caught in the north as well as in the south. A much cooler week, unsettled, on the cards. Live from london, this is bbc news. Israel and hezbollah Exchange Cross Border attacks. Waves of rockets are fired into Northern Israel and targets are struck in southern lebanon. Hezbollah confirms two senior commanders are among 37 people killed in friday� s strike on beirut. Israel� s military says it killed 16 � terrorists�. Votes are being counted in sri lanka� s first president ial election since the country� s economic meltdown two years ago. Russia evacuates 1,200 people after ukraine attacks an Ammunition Warehouse just east of occupied crimea. Here the Labour Party Conference begins this weekend, its first in government for 15 years. But ministers are expected to deliver sobering messages. Dozens more women contact the bbc with fresh allegations about the former Harrods Boss mohamed al fayed
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