More than 1500 workers have come to the town over nine months

Hundreds of Chinese workers live in squalid conditions in King's Lynn earning as little as �2.50 an hour working on nearby farms.

But they are afraid they will be punished - even killed - if they speak out against the gangs which employ them.

Through a translator, a worker who did not want to be identified told BBC Look East: "Some of my friends work all week and don't get paid at all, but we can't say anything because we don't speak English."

Isolated and frightened, Chinese workers live in cramped and dangerous conditions, with as many as 35 people in one house.

We want to explore just exactly what trafficking is going on Cllr John Dobson West Norfolk Borough Council

Recently, 18 immigrants fled a fire in a house on the town's Fairsted Estate where they were living.

Officials said they were shocked to find that a form of 21st Century slave labour is taking place in the rural Norfolk, which had an established but small Chinese community before the influx of economic immigrants.

West Norfolk Borough Councillor John Dobson said the council is meeting agencies to try to help the immigrants.

Mr Dobson said: "We want Inland Revenue, Customs and the environmental health authorities to look at the conditions of the workers.

"We want to explore just exactly what trafficking is going on."

Leading Chinese figures in Norfolk have said they believe that Triad gangs have been largely responsible for bringing in the migrants.