Case No. UKUT-00226-(IAC)

[2010] EWCA Crim 2880, in which certain restaurant owners were convicted of the criminal offence of trafficking. They contested their innocence on the basis that the victims had returned to Pakistan following the expiry of their work permits and had, subsequently, returned to the United Kingdom where they resumed employment with the Defendants. The Court of Appeal made the following notable observation, in [18]: “ The unspoken but clear explanation for the workers’ preparedness to return to the risk of further subjection and helplessness was the contrast between the economic circumstances of the families they left behind and even the degraded expectation of a job in the UK …. The return of the workers does not constitute evidence that the conditions to which [they] were subjected were acceptable but, in the circumstances of the present case, is evidence of further exploitation by the offenders of personal circumstances of which they knew they could take advantage. ” Notably, it was further held that, having been deceived by promises of attractive wages and working conditions in the United Kingdom, the victims, all adult males – “ … had been subjected to conditions of neglect, abuse, deprivation and economic exploitation …. [and] ….. They were not prisoners but were effectively trapped and controlled, being unable to work legally elsewhere … and being unable to leave the country and return home. ” See [3] and [21]. (31) The decision of the Court of Appeal in R v