The National Police has arrested two Spanish businessmen, alleged perpetrators of crimes of human trafficking for the purpose of economic exploitation, promotion of irregular immigration and membership in a criminal organization. The detainees are owners of a company in the agricultural sector in Mallorca and are said to have recruited workers of Moroccan origin in their country of origin, who paid between 15,000 and 22,000 euros for an employment contract that would allow them to come to Spain regularly.
The investigation, which lasted more than three months, was carried out by the Provincial Brigade of Immigration and Borders of the National Police of the Balearic Islands. The efforts of the police demonstrated the use of the network of said company and the distribution of the money collected between the two businessmen and another individual in charge of recruiting the workers in the place of origin.
This is not the only way in which the three defendants obtained considerable benefits, since they also charged between 6,000 and 8,000 euros for employment contracts that helped foreign citizens regularize their situation in Spain. The total number of people who would have regularized their situation in Spain through said company would be 26 in total.
At the same time, due to the debt incurred and the need to maintain their contract and not lose their status and conditions of regular residence in Spain, foreigners have been forced to accept abusive working conditions that are contrary to labor agreements.
The research group of the Central Unit of Immigration Networks and False Documents (UCRIF) is continuing the investigation, without ruling out further arrests.
Exploitation of labour in the Balearic Islands
On August 8, elDiario.es published an investigation into the Majorcan company Terracor, of which the general secretary of Vox in the Balearic Islands and councilor of the Consell of Majorca, Toni Gili, was a partner, in which workers denounced long hours, overcrowding and the lack of hygiene in their rooms, for which they say they pay 80 euros per month.
Several employees of Terracor, a conglomerate made up of six companies dedicated to the cultivation and sale of fruits and vegetables, told elDiario.es about their experiences at the company: working days of up to 17 hours a day – although the “normal” thing was to work 12 hours a day -, a salary of 6 euros an hour, wages without paid overtime and a lack of transparency in communicating housing conditions to employees before convincing them to travel more than 8,000 kilometers from their country to come to Mallorca.
The temporary workers signed contracts for 40-hour weeks, while the actual average number of hours worked is around 70, according to their version. While some were given a copy of the real schedules, others claimed to have been “forced” to sign others with the schedule that had been indicated to them by their bosses. Terracor did not want to respond to requests for information from this newspaper and limited itself to publishing a statement in which it neither denied nor refuted any of the information revealed by elDiario.es.
The possible consequences of the investigation opened after the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration became aware of an alleged case of labour exploitation have led some bosses, according to workers, to try to coerce staff in the event of a possible inspection: “If they ask you, ‘You say you work eight hours.’
After learning of the information processed by elDiario.es, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration contacted the Government Delegation of the Balearic Islands to ask the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate to carry out an inspection with “speed and urgency”. Close sources assure that the labour inspection is continuing its course.
