Dozens of people were found on Wednesday in squalid conditions, chained and in cages in a Trinidad and Tobago rehabilitation center run by a religious group for ex-prisoners and drug users, where some were tortured and held for years, police said.
Police said in a statement that 65 men and four women were rescued from a "modern-day slavery" operation at the Transformed Life Ministry Rehabilitation Centre in Arouca, 19 km east of the capital Port of Spain. Six people at the compound were arrested.
Images taken from the Transformed Life Ministry, which were provided to Reuters by police, showed handcuffs hanging from beds and windowless cells more akin to dog kennels at a pound. The ministry was founded 19 years ago by a pastor, Glen Awong.
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