Southport charity receives award for tacking illegal money lenders

Migrant Workers Sefton Community received a highly commended award yesterday (21st March) for their 2016 project which warned migrant workers living in Sefton of the dangers of borrowing from loan sharks.

The charity worked with The England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT), Multimedia Company Handstead Films and Sefton Neighbourhood Team to produce a short film to demonstrate the perils of getting involved with an illegal money lender and to promote the help and support available to loan shark victims through the IMLT.

The title for the film ‘Stop Loan Leeches’ came about after the charity found that the term ‘loan shark’ did not translate well in to Eastern European languages.

In order to get the message across to migrant workers, the short film was translated in to six different languages: English, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian and Russian.

Migrant Workers Sefton Community help mitigate the financial hardship among migrant workers and their dependents living in Sefton and the surrounding area.

In 2016, The England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) delivered training to volunteers from the charity on how to support migrant workers borrowing cash from loan sharks. Volunteers were taught on how to spot a loan shark and how to signpost victims to the appropriate help and support available.

As a result of actively working with the IMLT to raise awareness of loan sharks, Migrant Workers Sefton Community effectively reached over 900 direct clients and over 2000 in-direct client family members.

The project was funded by Sefton Council with support from the IMLT.

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