Belarusians freed from labor slavery in Spain

Belarusian citizens have been freed from labor slavery in Spain, where they were forced to work in illegal tobacco factories, BELTA reports, citing the Spanish digital newspaper Okdiario.

The Civil Guard and the Spanish Customs Control Service have dismantled a criminal organization that was engaged in the production and distribution of counterfeit and smuggled tobacco products in the provinces of Malaga, Cordoba and Seville. As a result of the operation, 18 people of different nationalities, including citizens of Belarus, China and Vietnam, who were forced to work in inhumane conditions, were freed.

It was established that the exploited workers arrived in Spain four months ago, having been deceived by an organization that recruited them through Facebook with false offers of work in the construction industry. According to sources in the Spanish Civil Guard, they were promised between €2,500 and €3,000 a month. They were met at Malaga airport by members of the criminal organization and taken in vans to the factories, the main one being in the Sierra de Eguas in Malaga province. The Civil Guard estimates that the illegal factories produced 8 million cigarettes a day.

On the spot, the workers had their mobile phones taken away. They were held captive for more than 100 days in overcrowded rooms, forced to work 12 hours a day without pay, as they supposedly owed the organization for bringing them to Spain. The room had only a sink, a dirty shower and a small microwave, and the windows were covered with plastic and cardboard so that no one could see them from the outside.

It is noted that of the 18 released workers, 12 (citizens of Belarus and China) have applied to return to their countries.

The Spanish Civil Guard said that they did not expect that about twenty exploited workers would be discovered during the searches. At the same time, it is still unknown how long the criminal network had been operating. During the searches conducted at the factories, equipment and materials related to illegal production worth more than 3 million euros were seized. The investigation ended with the arrest of 21 people, all of them Spanish citizens. They have been charged with human trafficking, tax fraud, and tobacco smuggling. The Civil Guard believes that the criminal network has been "completely eliminated."