Behind the bright green door of the man’s garage ‘home’ in Wolverhampton lay a dirty foam mattress and a crumpled up sleeping bag on the floor.
A hat, scarf and other clothing hung from what appeared to be part of a car chassis. The ground was littered with empty water bottles. There was an unconnected toilet in the corner along with a foreign newspaper and a used glass. The air reeked of alcohol.
John Mellor, a former policeman and ex-councillor who lives nearby, said today: “There could not be a better illustration of the warning given by the chief constable of Cambridgeshire about the problems brought by migrant workers.
“They have been using these derelict garages for weeks. It is being turned into some kind of transit camp and is a health hazard to those living in it. It could also create problems for local residents. There is a risk of crime and other social problems - the whole thing could grow unless nipped in the bud.
“The migrants offer cheap labour but more checks should be made before they are allowed into the country. If they come without a home and are forced to survive in conditions like these, then we could be sitting on a potential powder keg.”
Council officials are investigating and visited the garages yesterday. Several of the buildings show signs of having been lived in recently and are used by the homeless as well as migrant workers.
One man living nearby, who asked not to named, described the situation as “appalling”. “The workers have been living there on and off for weeks,” he said. “There have been Kosovans and Poles.
“They speak little or no English but you see them in the local shops buying beer. What kind of life can they be leading in these circumstances? They have no toilet facilities, nothing to cook on, nowhere to wash - it is absolutely appalling.”
Another man in the area added: “You often see men sitting on the wall by the garages waiting to be picked up and taken to work in the morning. They have never caused me any problems but it cannot be right that people with jobs carry on like this.
“They may be paid a pittance but this is not living - it is just existing.”
Official figures published last autumn showed that at least 60,000 Eastern European workers had moved to the Midlands since May 2004,- the third highest regional total behind East Anglia and Greater London. The majority found jobs in food processing and seasonal work.
Wolverhampton City Council spokeswoman Felicity Roberts said today the garages in Merridale had always been privately owned.
“Our officials are putting the individuals concerned in touch with the relevant agencies which can help them,” she added.
“They are also working with organisations to look at tracing the owners of the garages and bringing them into a better state of repair.”
Report by John Scott
12 Comments
thats new…i will be sure to be check my garage later.
It is a poor state of affairs really and these people who live off them should pay heavily.
What a shame that people contributing to our economy in the UK are treated like this.
At least it may stop people whinging that ‘they’ are taking our housing…..
Well should follow them to work then prosecute the employer . Then they shopuld all be deported and put on a national computer so there cant come back in. They are all scum. Dragging Wolverhampton down to gutter level
What a sorry state of affairs. However, I’m not clear what’s being got at by the report.
Is it that some poor person has resorted to living in a garage who is being failed by the system and we should be sympathetic towards? That someone is being exploited by an unscrupulous gang master who should be investigated? Or is it that we should object to an immigrant ‘living’ in a local neighbourhood?
You never know they might have been given accommodation and they could but renting it out to someone else.
Stranger things have happened !
get them out !
Unfortunately, due to a small thing called the European Union, the government have no power to deport migrant workers from other EU countries.
Even more unfortunate, due to another small thing called the Human Rights Act, which was spawned by the European Union, the government have no bottle to deport the thousands of illegal economic migrants that are flooding into the country.
Well done ‘E & S’, welcome to the real world. Its only been going on with migrant workers since the first lot came over to this country.
This is nothing new, i`ve seen this going on for the last few years, especially round whitmore reans. Being a shift worker, you see them all hangin around the streets waiting for the vans to pick them up. Goverments to blame, they let them in, then can`t control them when there here. We should round them up and send them back home.
This is yet another example of unregulated immigration which this country almost single-handedly thrust upon us without recourse to voting for it ! - Forget about so-called employers citing hard-working ethic etc etc - they are merely interested in cheap labour - the true cost of the labour of the social, political and financial infrastructure of this country generally and local people in particular cannot be calculated - illegals should be deported and people proved to be employing them should heavily fined and publicised in order to discourage others - bear in mind that due to our current Rumanian crime wave since the beginning of this year crime has actually fallen over there ! Commonsense tells me that we are not getting the creme de la creme meanwhile we have record levels of indigenous britons applying to move abroad…Ignore articales like this and ways to address the issues at your peril IMO
the human righst act should be reviewed and amended as its an appaling piece of legislation, nothign has common sence anymore, the police cant even do there job because of all the red tape, so what chance have you got of deporting the immigrants, walk though wolverhampton and you’ll see them all though the town, we should be able to deport them along with hate leaders and then be able to do somethign with the people who hire them for work and make them live in conditions like this.
well wot more can be said, first of all they should not be in our country,then taking jobs that us british people find hard to get because employers would rather pay illegal people that the people who pay taxes in this country, wot is happening to our country someone please tell me.