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Police raid Lincolnshire farms in human trafficking inquiry

More than 60 eastern Europeans, allegedly required to work long hours for little money, were removed from Lincolnshire leek fields yesterday morning in the UK’s biggest move against human trafficking for labour exploitation.

Police believe the workers, aged 15 to 67, ended up with pay far below the minimum wage, after working up to 16 hours a day, six days a week.

On top of the punishing shifts in the fields of East Anglia, the workers were spending up to four hours a day travelling in vans between the farms and their cramped accommodation in Northamptonshire and the West Midlands, according to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. It is thought some of the vegetables they picked went to the big supermarkets.

Three men were arrested on suspicion of human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation, and four men and a woman were held on suspicion of people trafficking and money laundering. All are UK residents but their nationalities have not been not confirmed.

Possibly hundreds of victims had been exploited, police said. Detectives suspect the workers, most of whom were in Britain legally, were recruited through adverts and agencies abroad, including in Poland and Lithuania.

Police believe they would have been given money to get to the UK but then been required to pay it back, possibly with interest, from their earnings, and that passports or ID cards would have been taken and cash deducted for rent and transport to the fields. The system was “debt bondage”, Andy Baker, Soca’s deputy director, said.

Baker said police believed violence was used against some of the people and that some worked without protective clothing and had cuts to their hands. Yesterday’s swoop took place in pouring rain and the workers allegedly wore only light clothing. “There were virtually no health and safety measures taken. These conditions were pretty poor.”

More than 200 staff from nine organisations were involved in the operation in Holbeach, south Lincolnshire, and in Kettering, Northamptonshire, and other areas of the Midlands, where 21 houses were searched. The move took six months to plan.

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Russia to build nuclear reactor for Hugo Chávez

Russia’s deepening strategic partnership with Venezuela took a dramatic step forward yesterday when it emerged that Moscow has agreed to build Venezuela’s first ever nuclear reactor.

President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement with his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, during a visit to Latin America next week, part of a determined Russian push into the region.

The reactor is to be named after Humberto Fernandez Moran, a late Venezuelan research scientist and former science minister, Chávez has announced. It is one of many accords he hopes to sign while hosting Medvedev in Caracas next week.

The prospect of a nuclear deal between Moscow and Caracas, following a surge in Russian economic, military, political and intelligence activity in Latin America, is likely to alarm the US and present an early challenge to the Obama administration.

“Hugo Chávez joins the nuclear club,” Russian’s Vedomosti newspaper trumpeted yesterday.

Venezuela’s socialist leader said the reactor may be based in the eastern state of Zulia. He stressed that the project would be for peaceful purposes. As if to underline that point, four Japanese survivors from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs visited Venezuela this week at the government’s invitation.

The energy ministry, which is scouting locations, said the project was at a very early stage. A report which mooted a nuclear reactor long before Chávez came to power has been dusted off.

Despite abundant oil reserves, Venezuela’s energy infrastructure is creaking and prone to blackouts. A nuclear reactor would enable the country to utilise its rich uranium deposits and allay criticism that the government has neglected energy investment.

More importantly for Moscow and Caracas, a nuclear deal will showcase a partnership which advocates creating new “poles” of power to check American hegemony.

Nick Day, a Latin American specialist, said the nuclear deal was deliberately timed to pile pressure on the US administration during a moment of transition and weakness.

“Russia is manoeuvring hard in the time between Obama’s election and his inauguration. What the Russians are trying to do is to set up a chessboard that gives them greater mobility in negotiations when he [Obama] comes to power,” Day said.

He added: “Russia’s message is: ‘We can exert influence in your backyard if you continue to exert influence in our backyard. If you don’t take your missiles out of Poland and end Nato expansion we’re going to increase our influence in Latin America and do things to provoke you.’”

According to Sergei Novikov, spokesman for Russia’s federal nuclear agency, no reactor can be built until both countries have signed a preliminary agreement on nuclear cooperation. This will be signed next week, Novikov told Vedomosti.

Both presidents are also expected to firm up details of a Russian-Venezuelan energy consortium to jointly produce and sell oil and gas.

Russian companies which are already exploring oilfields in Venezuela could then extend their reach to fields in Ecuador and Bolivia.

Venezuela has bought $4bn of Russian arms, including Sukhoi fighter jets, making it one of Moscow’s best clients. Chávez has spoken of also buying Project 636 diesel submarines, Mi-28 combat helicopters, T72 tanks and air-defence systems.

Despite the spending spree, Venezuela’s military has not tipped the regional balance of power.

Chávez’s armed forces lag behind that of Brazil, Chile and Colombia and analysts question Venezuelan effectiveness.

For Russia’s president, however, Caracas is a valuable springboard into Latin America. In addition to Venezuela Medvedev will visit Peru, Brazil and Cuba - the first trip by a Russian leader to Havana in eight years.

Moscow has spoken of reviving Soviet-era intelligence cooperation with the communist island and in a sign of dramatically improved ties, President Raul Castro last month attended the opening of a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Havana.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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Headteachers should plan for their legacy

Headteachers must start thinking about who will take over from them as soon as they take up their post, the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) said today.

NCSL chief executive Steve Munby said headteachers should pick out those teachers with the potential to take up the top posts to avoid “boom and bust” in school leadership.

Munby – a government adviser on school leadership – has warned that up to 55% of headteachers could retire within four years and that schools face a demographic time bomb.

He told delegates at the NCSL’s national new heads conference in London today: “We need legacy heads, who plan for their legacy from the outset.

“We need to avoid the boom and bust, we are not thinking ahead enough and we need to do that from the outset.

“We need to find teachers who have the potential to step up and grow with their headteacher’s support.”

He warned that with 28% of headteachers over the age of 55, around a quarter of them will be lost to schools over the next five years.

“We need young teachers who want to become heads. Heads shouldn’t wait to think about their legacy,” he said.

The number of young teachers who want the top jobs has gone up by 10% in recent years alone.

Munby called on teachers to work collaboratively with other schools to nurture teachers with potential leadership qualities to take up the top posts in the future - at whichever school they choose.

He said: “It’s about a number of things, it’s about giving them confidence and giving them opportunities to lead with support.

“The reason why heads need to work collaboratively is so they can see what is happening in other contexts, in other schools.”

“You have a duty to develop school leaders not just in your own school but for the wider system,” he told the conference.

“We’re all in leadership because someone believed in us and encouraged us to be a leader.

“We need legacy heads that spot the potential for headship in others and ensure the leadership problem is not cyclical,” he said.

“The best organisations take pride in the fact that they grow more leaders than they need and are a net exporter of leaders.”

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