The key facts

  • The recruitment agency employee is charged with recruiting, while three Ukrainian citizens are charged with controlling the workers
  • The victims are Colombian citizens who arrived in Poland via Spain while fleeing drug cartels
  • The defendants face imprisonment for a term of three to 20 years

A court in Radom is hearing a human trafficking case

An employee of a recruitment agency and three Ukrainian citizens accused of human trafficking have appeared before the District Court in Radom, Poland. This was reported by the Radom24 portal, which is cited by Gazeta.Ru. The agency employee is charged with recruiting people, while the Ukrainians, according to the investigation, supervised the workers' labor. For the crimes they are charged with, the defendants face imprisonment for a term of three to 20 years.

What is known about the victims and working conditions

According to the case materials, the victims of the crime were Colombian citizens who arrived in Poland via Spain while fleeing drug cartels. The prosecution claims that the newcomers had their passports and money taken away, their freedom of movement was restricted — they were forbidden to leave the hostel — and they were subjected to an exhausting schedule: just one 15-minute break a day, with a wage of about $370 a month. Physical violence and threats were used to control the workers. The investigation found that the overseers maimed people: one worker suffered a leg injury after a crate of meat was thrown at him. There are also reports of cruel treatment of a pregnant woman who was forced to work in the workshop despite health complications.

Similar cases in Russia

In connection with this case, Gazeta.Ru recalls two recent trials in Russia. In Yakutia, a court sentenced a sole proprietor and his father to real prison terms for using slave labor on a farm: the captives lived in a bathhouse and a cowshed, worked without days off or pay, received no medical care, were systematically beaten, and one of them was chained with handcuffs and a chain to a stall. It was also previously reported that two Russians abducted 18 people and kept them in slavery for years. What these cases have in common with the Polish trial is only the nature of the crimes — the exploitation of people; legally, they are not connected.