Thousands of Asians who toiled in Bradford's mills during the 1960s and 70s without proper safety provision have launched a bid for compensation.

Up to 60 mainly Pakistani former factory and mill workers plan to go to Downing Street to highlight the health problems they have suffered as a consequence of working in sub-standard conditions.

Fazal Hussain, of Carlisle Terrace, Manningham, said he suffered poor eyesight, damaged ligaments, and chest problems as a result of working in a textile mill without adequate protection.

Now 70, he came to England as a young man leaving a wife and three children in Mirpur, Pakistan, planning to return after earning enough money to establish himself.

He said: "When we came to this country we did not think we were going to stay and our aim was to earn as much money as possible. As a consequence we worked long hours, through the night, and mostly we were from the villages and did not know anything about the laws and working conditions. We acc-epted everything."

He worked at a textile mill from the age of 19 and said despite the dust and noise there was no safety provision.

"There was a lot of dust and noise. We worked without ear-muffs, without gloves, in artificial light.

"We had no face masks and breathed in horrible fumes. We didn't know anything about the laws so we just put up with it. But now we are paying the price.

"We gave our youth for the economy of this country. Don't we deserve anything back?"

Bradford solicitor Aurangzeb Iqbal, pictured with some of the claimants, will be taking the group to London. He said very many Asians felt short-changed.

"It has taken a long time for Asian elders to come forward. They are suffering from all sorts of problems which are directly related to the conditions they endured in their youth.

"We have a situation where miners with vibration white finger have been compensated by a fund running into millions by the Government.

"That campaign was very well put together, but unfortunately very nearly all the first generation Asians are illiterate and as a result have had no voice whatsoever."

Mr Iqbal, who works for Churchill Solicitors in Eldon Place, Manningham, said he planned to take coachloads of former factory workers from every major city in England to London until the issue was properly addressed.