Immigrant children forced to work as slave labourers in an illegal clothes factory near Moscow have been freed in a police operation.

Fifteen minors from Kyrgyzstan had their documents taken away and were made to work day and night under 24-hour guard.

On a diet of bread and mayonnaise, they were punished for disobeying orders or refusing to man the sewing machines in the windowless cellar of an industrial complex in Noginsk, not far from the Russian capital.

The youngsters, all aged between 11 and 17, were recruited from poor families. Parents were told the children would receive fair pay and be provided with appropriate accommodation. Instead they lived in squalor in the heat and dust of the factory floor.

Several adult Kyrgyz nationals were arrested in the police raid.

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