ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A Kurdish business owner in southern London has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison by British authorities, after he was found guilty of multiple counts of “holding a person in slavery or servitude.”

London’s Metropolitan Police’s Modern Slavery Unit launched an investigation into Hewa Margai, a 45-year-old car wash owner, back in February 2021, after receiving information from one of the man’s victims, a 15-year-old boy, who had been lured into the country months before “with the promise of a job at the car wash – only to have his ID confiscated by the manager upon arrival,” according to a statement from the police.

“Between November and December 2020, eight Romanian nationals, including a 15-year-old boy, were trafficked to the UK under false promises of accommodation, fair pay, food, and legitimate employment. Instead, the victims were deprived of basic human rights, forced to work in Margai's Mitcham car wash, housed in a small room on-site, and routinely subjected to physical, mental and psychological abuse,” read the statement.

Authorities conducted a raid on the car wash after receiving the information, where they found the other seven victims, two women and five men, who “had been living in a shed on-site for months.”

Margai was out of the UK when authorities first raided his car wash, but he was arrested in March 2021 upon returning to the country.

Following a five-year investigation, The Kingston Crown Court on Thursday handed Margai an 8.5 years imprisonment sentence, as well as a 10-year Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order, after finding him guilty of “eight counts of holding a person in slavery or servitude under section 1 of Modern Slavery Act.”

“All the victims have since returned home to Romania with the help and support of the Met police and The International Justice Mission,” the statement added.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants make the perilous journey across the English Channel to the UK on annual basis, often lured in by unreliable smugglers selling the dream of financial stability and a better life abroad; a prospect many fail to find even if they survive the hazardous paths.