In his home country of Iran, Armin, 32, was a highly successful chef working at some of the country’s top restaurants. He rose to national fame when he appeared on reality TV series Dastpokht, known as Iran’s version of MasterChef.

With TV fame came brand deals and TV cooking slots, and soon Armin was receiving a flurry of offers and opportunities.  One offer was the role of Head Chef at an independent hotel in the UK.

With an interest in travelling and working abroad, and ambitions to further his culinary career and build on his TV fame in Europe, Armin accepted the position. Arrangements began to be made for his move over to the UK.

However, on arrival, Armin’s dreams became a nightmare. 

He soon found himself exploited, bullied and emotionally abused by his new employer, the hotel owner.

“I was made to work from 7am until 10pm, seven days a week," Armin said. 

"She paid me for my first two weeks in the job, but then she wouldn’t pay me. When I asked for my wages, she said she would pay me soon, but she never did. I had no money to live on, and she knew this.” 

Armin’s employer was also responsible for providing him with food and accommodation, which left him in a particularly vulnerable position.

“She wouldn’t let me eat well," he said. "My accommodation was so bad and was so cold. I didn’t know what to do. I had nowhere else to go.”

When Armin went back to his accommodation to sleep, his employer would call him throughout the night telling him he should be preparing for his next day of work. This eventually led to Armin developing severe mental health problems.

“I had these thoughts that she is going to call again and I couldn’t sleep at all. She’d tell me that I’m nothing. Whenever I did sleep, I would have really bad dreams. I started getting lots of fears and anxieties. It was like a mental pain for me, like I was losing my personality.”

Armin’s skilled worker visa had been arranged by his employer and was linked to the job. Whenever Armin complained about his treatment, his employer threatened to have him deported.

“I didn’t know anything about this country or the law, and my employer took advantage of that. She always said ‘If you don’t do this, if you don’t do that, I’m going to send you back to your country’.”

Armin saw that it wasn’t just him being exploited by his employer.  Colleagues brought  over from other countries to work at the hotel were also experiencing the same poor treatment. 

“I thought this isn’t a life. I tried to call everywhere I could to get help.  I tried calling my GP, lawyers I found on the internet, and Citizen’s Advice.”

Citizens Advice advised Armin to make a complaint to the police. From there he was referred into the government’s National Referral Mechanism, who referred him on for modern slavery support.

After a year of support, Armin is now living independently in the community, and has received a new working visa which isn’t linked to his former employer.

“I think people are going to be really shocked about what happened to me," he added. "It could happen to anybody.”

Armin recently took part in a series of courses provided by Causeway aimed at boosting the self-esteem of modern slavery survivors.  This includes Ingredients for Life, a specialist cookery course for survivors, and open to people from outside Causeway.

Armin is telling his story as part of Causeway’s Survivors: Life Beyond Exploitation campaign.  The campaign aims to educate the public about modern slavery, challenge stereotypes, and get to the real people behind the statistics.

Please support the campaign by donating to Causeway and help us continue our work supporting survivors of modern slavery.