A community worker has called for greater financial support for migrant workers after a fire closed a Cleckheaton factory.

Helena Danielczuk, a community worker for Bradford mental health charity Sharing Voices, said she had been approached by more than a dozen Eastern European workers from Forza, after the fire at the multi-million-pound meat-processing business on Saturday, February 13.

Some of the factory’s 600 staff, many employed by recruitment company Red Rock On Site Services, were sent home. Miss Danielczuk said while some of the workers have been bussed to jobs in Hull and Liverpool, hundreds remained out of work.

She said: “They have to work for an unbroken 12 months otherwise they are unable to claim job seeker’s allowance. Some of them are destitute. Maybe people who look at the rules and regulations will see that it’s not practical to continue to run things like this.”

A private meeting for some of the workers was held at the Cedar Court hotel in Bradford by the company on Saturday.

Terry Rooney, Labour MP for Bradford North and chairman of the Commons work and pensions select committee, said: “The rule for migrant workers accessing public funds was put in place to stop people coming to Britain and claiming benefits straightaway.

“Companies should have insurance for this kind of thing.”

No-one at Forza was available to comment. Red Rock declined to comment on the issue.