It's not surprising that there have been suicides amongst the
strawberry pickers. Last year we had a young Russian student come to
our church sobbing about the bullying at the camp she lived in. After
prayer she made the decision to go back home to her family the next
day rather than suffer a moment longer (and she was a well educated
strong young lady). There were also a number of other concerns that
she had about the working conditions.

It's terrible for any of the strawberry pickers to have such a
negative experience of being in Britain; but the set up encourages an
atmosphere of ill feeling between different groups of people. Living
like that week in week out is not a normal situation, especially with
a large number of young people miles away from family support.

I should think that it’s easy to feel disillusioned, despondent,
lonely and desperate in such a situation. Hereford council should take
some responsibility for allowing this dreadful situation.  At least
when local students went strawberry picking they had their familes at
home at the end of a shift and local needs were being met too.

In Christ's love
Carol T