How modern slavery victim went from homelessness to ‘amazing’ job
Will spent years being homeless and further time as a victim of modern slavery.
But since teaming up with a Birmingham charity, he has a job and a safe place to live.
The now 38-year-old came to Birmingham from Poland 17 years ago.
He wanted to make use of his good English and move to a country which he felt had better opportunities than his home.
After getting a job with a building firm he found a place to live.
But, after a few months, a family bereavement – his sister was killed in an accident – combined with a housemate who he said did not pay his share of the bills led to him becoming depressed and evicted.
He became homeless, spending nights at the coach station in Digbeth and days in the library.
Eventually, he was introduced to Sifa Fireside, a charity which runs support services for homeless people and others who want to rebuild their lives.
He began to sell the Big Issue and, thanks to moving onto other jobs and the charity’s support, remained off the streets for seven years.
He later got employment in a warehouse where he was eventually made team leader. However, he said he had lost the job when two people he considered friends, and who he had got jobs at the factory, began stealing from it. He could not prove he was not involved.
“As a thank you for getting my friends a job, I lost mine,” he said.
Later, after nursing what he described as a mild case of depression, he found work in a factory in Walsall and moved in with a couple he met there. That is when his situation took a turn for the worse.
“They asked me if I could lend them some money because of housing benefit issues or something, I had no issue with that. They offered me a lovely meal as a thank you. And that’s the end of that positive story.
“They poisoned me, then took all my money off me, took my ID off me and then basically kept me in forced labour for close to two years.”
The poison made him sick to his stomach, he said, for the next week and left him unable to leave his room. When he did, his passport, wallet, bank cards and money had gone and he ended up depending on them for everything.
His food was rationed, he could not leave his room apart from to go shopping for them or translate anything and clean for them. He was stopped from working.
“Not exactly pleasant people,” he said.
“I tried escaping a couple of times, I lost a couple of teeth because of that. I was walking from Bloxwich towards Walsall, a car pulled up and I was knocked to the floor and ended up back at home sweet home.”
He felt he could not get help as he did not have any address or paperwork to prove who he was.
The only thing he was allowed to keep was his library card, as it was not considered of value.
“Best thing I could do was borrow a few books from the library so at least I had something to read, one thing I could do for myself. I would read books all day while staying in bed because if I made a noise they got annoyed.”
He got a food allowance of two loaves of bread, two packs of soft cheese and a pack of luncheon meat to last him a week.
“If I got lucky and found some pennies on the floor I would buy some cookies.”
Sometimes the couple would go with him to the shops, sometimes not, but even if not he said they had so many friends around the town centre there were no opportunities to leave.
The couple were alcoholics, he said, which eventually helped him escape.
“They were horribly drunk one night to the point where I took advantage of it and escaped at three o’clock in the morning and literally walked from Walsall to Birmingham straight to Sifa Fireside.
“It was the best walk ever.”
Source: (BBC News)