The Civil Guard in La Rioja dismantled an illegally occupied chalet in Villamediana, who was in unsanitary conditions, without adequate ventilation or hygiene, and in which 60 migrants exploited by labor were accommodatedwho, in most cases, were forced to work the grape harvest for nine hours a day, with a 15-minute break for lunch.
The government delegate in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz; the colonel head of Zone X of the Civil Guard of La Rioja, Enrique Moure; and the spokesperson for Benemérita in the region, Miguel Ángel Sáez, presented this Thursday, during an information conference, the result of operation Spasmframed in the “Action Plan against trafficking in human beings and labor exploitation” and in which Three people aged 44 to 52 were arrested.
Those arrested are considered the alleged perpetrators of the crimes against workers’ rights, injuries and failure to help. These temporary workers, mostly from North Africa and including 15 in an irregular situation in Spain, were paid 8 euros per houra little lower than what was established by the agreement of 8.93 euros, but from this amount they deducted transport costs and the butane bottles they used for cooking.
A worker was attacked
In addition, one of the workers was attacked and crushed for refusing to work at 6 euros an hourand all “lived under the constant threat of losing their only means of subsistence,” according to Sáez. Arraiz indicated that the occupied house belongs to a banking entity and that to reside there during the harvest season, the migrants had to pay between 120 and 140 euros per month, in addition to contributing four euros per day for round-trip transport to the vineyards of the Riojan towns of Logroño, Briñas and the Navarrese town of Mendavia.
He explained that the three detainees were brought to justice and that two of them They had an intermediary company with the owners of the vineyards to provide them with workers, while the third was the one who would have occupied the villa in Villamediana, about 6 kilometers from Logroño.
A total of 48 Civil Guard agents, as well as drones from the Pegaso team, participated in this operation, which was saved thanks to the arrest of these three people. Sáez clarified that the owners of the vineyards ““They have no responsibility” of this situation and claim that they were unaware of it. Additionally, some of them paid the company that provided them with workers 13.5 euros per hour“above the deal”.
They forced him to live there
He reported that this operation began at the end of last September, when it was learned that “A temporary worker was forced by his employer to live in a house in Villamediana during the harvest season. » After becoming aware of this fact, a surveillance operation was organized at the property, during which the agents noted that several vans were leaving the chalet every morning loaded with seasonal workers to transport them to different vineyards and that they were taking safety measures to avoid being followed, such as making strategic stops, indicated.
He said that, to verify the employment status of the temporary workers, officers identified the drivers and occupants of the vans and searched the cottage, where they informed the migrants of their labor rights and they “did not not opposed, even them.” They offered coffee“, he recalled. Once informed by the agents, 17 of the seasonal workers denounced the precarious conditions in which they worked and lived in the chalet, where they also had to pay for the butane bottles for cooking, which further worsened their precarious situation.
