Quote:
Outside the shop, more police officers are questioning a tired-looking Vietnamese man who has been peering through the back of the building, then watching proceedings from the other side of the high street and making calls. They ask him to hand over and unlock his phone.
“It’s not my phone,” he tells them, speaking Vietnamese to the translator. “Some lady just gave it to me.”
“Can you just tell him I’ve never heard such rubbish in my life,” the police officer says, holding the phone in front of the man’s face to see if it would unlock with facial recognition.
“Tell him we are going to arrest him on suspicion of theft of a mobile phone.” The man unlocks his phone and officers look through the 20 calls he has made and received during the 45 minutes since the raid began, establishes that a number of calls have been made to staff inside the shop and decide to arrest him on suspicion of involvement in modern slavery and people trafficking.
Shortly, another man comes to the shop, pushing a small baby in a pram, and looks through the windows at the staff inside. “Is this your shop?” police ask him. He shakes his head, but when asked to show ID, police recognise him as the man named as the shop’s manager on a notice inside. Another officer takes the pram, handcuffs him and tells him: “You are under arrest for arranging and facilitating modern slavery. We’ll look after the baby, don’t worry.”
“Is there anyone else who can look after the baby?” a police officer asks the translator to ask the man, adding in an aside: “We’re getting our money’s worth out of you … Ask him: Is there another family member? When does the baby need food and drink?”
In total, 13 people working in the five shops are arrested on suspicion of modern slavery and human trafficking offences, and another seven are arrested on suspicion of immigration offences and possessing counterfeit goods, mostly counterfeit cigarettes. Five children and nine adults are deemed to be vulnerable and taken to a temporary reception centre. The council says later that no one was taken into care, because “police weren’t able to establish that any of the young people were children”, although 10 children were found working in Southwark’s nail bars earlier in the year and placed with foster carers. It is unclear what happened to the baby.
