Arrests for migrant exploitation
Two Bangladeshi men, aged 34 and 35, have been arrested by prosecutors of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism on charges of participation in a group that exploited Asian immigrants through forced labor. Two other defendants in the network, a Bangladeshi citizen and a Romanian woman, are evading prosecution, and another suspect is currently in Bangladesh. The offences include forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, accessory to human trafficking, submission to forced labor, assault or other violence, unlawful deprivation of liberty, unauthorized access to a computer system, fraudulent financial transactions and unauthorized transfer of computer data.
Two Bangladeshi men, aged 34 and 35, have been arrested by prosecutors of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism on charges of participation in a group that exploited Asian immigrants through forced labor. Two other defendants in the network, a Bangladeshi citizen and a Romanian woman, are evading prosecution, and another suspect is currently in Bangladesh. The offences include forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, accessory to human trafficking, submission to forced labor, assault or other violence, unlawful deprivation of liberty, unauthorized access to a computer system, fraudulent financial transactions and unauthorized transfer of computer data.
Over 20 victims have been identified so far, with investigations being continued to identify other people brought into Romania and exploited by the group. The immigrants were brought to Romania with the promise of getting a job at a Bucharest-based company operating in the courier/delivery area, but they were subsequently kept in a state of illegality, as the commercial company in question didn’t meet its legal obligations of submitting individual employment contracts to the General Inspectorate for Immigration, in order to obtain residence permits. The defendants, together with the other members of the group, devised a plan to keep the victims in a state of permanent terror, so that they would not protest the inhuman conditions they were subjected to.
The working program of the victims was 7 days a week, more than 8 working hours a day, no days off, and the salary was never received in full. Thus, accommodation and meals were withheld from the salary, without the workers’ consent, alongside various amounts representing taxes and commissions that had never been included in legal provisions. Ultimately, the workers were paid some 300-400 lei (about 60-80 Euros) per week. Taxes were made up of percentages and fixed amounts, including a 21% tax. Later, some other ‘taxes’ were withheld: for the delivery application – 1,000 lei (some 200 Euros) and for the means of transport (bicycle, etc.) at least 1,000 lei. Also, the investigations revealed that the food the victims received, for a small fee, consisted of expired products that could no longer be sold in the shop owned by the head of the organized crime group, prosecutors say.
Also, group members asked some of the immigrants to pay amounts between 8,000 and 12,000 Euros in order to receive a job in legal conditions. After a local television station in Bangladesh broadcast an interview featuring one of the victims describing the fraudulent way in which the commercial company operated, the members of the group lured the victim to a location in Bucharest, where they physically assaulted her/him and stole her/his mobile phones.
