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Police vans at the Greenacre caravan site in Leighton Buzzard this morning. Steve Parsons/PA Wire
Leighton Buzzard
Five arrested after men found in shocking conditions on UK traveller site
Twenty-four men were found in filthy and cramped conditions on the site in Bedfordshire. Five have been arrested on slavery offences.
FOUR MEN AND a woman have been arrested on slavery offences on a travellers’ site in Bedfordshire in England after 24 men were found in shocking conditions on the site.
The BBC reports that the men were being held in filthy and cramped conditions and police believe that some of them may have been at the Greenacre travellers’ site in Leighton Buzzard for up to 15 years.
More than 200 officers were involved in the raids, during which weapons, drugs and money were also uncovered.
Bedfordshire on Sunday reports that police believe the men were “living and working there in a state of virtual slavery”. According to local newspaper the Leighton Buzzard Observer they were living in horse boxes, caravans and sheds and some were malnourished and covered in excrement.
Police believe that the Greenacre site could be at the centre of a national slavery network.
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