24 ‘SLAVES’ FOUND AT BRITISH CAMPSITE

HOMELESS MEN RESCUED
FROM SLAVERY IN BRITAIN

London (Guardian News) - Twenty-four modern day slaves have been released from bondage after a pre-dawn police raid found them emaciated, hungry and living in “filthy and cramped” conditions at a British caravan park.  The men - Poles, Romanians and Russians as well as British - had been forced to survive in a “state of virtual slavery” at the Greenacre caravan park in Leighton Buzzard, north-east of London, according to police.  The men varied in age from about 20 to 50; all were vulnerable and had been recruited from homeless shelters and dole queues. Some are believed to have been in virtual captivity for up to 15 years. Five people - four men and a woman - were arrested in the raid on the mainly gypsy site at 5.30am on Sunday. The raid involved 200 officers.

The men had not been paid for physically demanding labouring jobs, were hardly fed and were given no clothes. If they complained they faced beatings.  “The men we found at the site were in a poor state of physical health and the conditions they were living in were shockingly filthy and cramped.  This was a recruitment centre where people down on their luck were brought to,” Inspector O’Neil said. “They had been found in soup kitchens and benefit offices and told they would be given work, clothing, a home and food.”  When new recruits arrived they would have their mobile phones confiscated and their heads shaved: “They were told by the people who had brought them here ‘You have no family now, we are your family’. If they wanted to leave they were threatened.”  “They had no access to running water, no toilet and no washing facilities.” The men were thought to have worked from 7am until 7pm most days.

24 modern-day slaves were released from bondage after a pre-dawn police raid found them emaciated, hungry and living in “filthy and cramped” conditions on a caravan site north-east of London.  The men - Poles, Romanians and Russians as well as Britons - all recruited from homeless shelters and dole queues, had been forced to survive in a “state of virtual slavery” at that place.  Some are believed to have been in virtual captivity for up to 15 years.  We reject the single idea of being a "slave", but the real slavery is to be slave to lust and the senses.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Activities of sense gratification, meant only to please one’s mind and senses, are the cause of material bondage, and as long as one engages in such fruitive activities, the soul is sure to continually transmigrate from species to species. ... Jnana, or knowledge that one is not the material body but a spirit soul, is not sufficient for liberation. One must act on the platform of spirit soul. This is called devotional service, which includes many practical techniques for becoming free from karma and reincarnation. ... Therefore, in order to free ourselves from the endless repetition of birth and death, we must understand the laws of karma and reincarnation. Otherwise, we will have to come back to this material world again and again; and we must remember that we may not always return as human beings.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
“Coming Back” - Chapter 8: “Don’t Come Back”
“Practical Techniques for Becoming Free from Karma and Reincarnation”