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National police in Spain dismantled, Saturday, in Fuente Álamo (Murcia), a criminal organization dedicated to the exploitation of Moroccan migrants in an irregular situation.
In a statement, the national police said that a Moroccan headed said organization, which operated as a textile company. With his two sons, they exploited 21 Moroccan migrants, and took advantage of their irregular situation to make them work in inhumane conditions.
The textile company was dedicated to the acquisition of second-hand clothing for sale and distribution, particularly in Morocco, it continues.
«The detainees recruited foreign citizens in an irregular situation to force them to work without any legal guarantee during long hours», police said. «They took advantage of their vulnerability, and their situation of need, to subject them to harsh working conditions», it added.
Police revealed that said company’s warehouse was showing a «total lack of occupational safety and hygiene measures».
Taking advantage of the «vulnerability» of migrants
This case pushed the Association of Moroccan Immigrant Workers (ATIM) to react. In a statement released Monday, it denounced the acts of this company and described it as a labor exploitation case.
The NGO, which welcomed the «dismantling of this criminal organization camouflaged as a company from Fuente Álamo (Murcia)», also denounced what it called «semi-slavery».
«This situation highlights that labor exploitation and the informal economy are established in the region of Murcia and that this is not an isolated case but rather a habitual practice of a well-nourished group».
The NGO also urged the Ministry of Labor to strengthen and intensify inspections and the local government to promote the implementation of a policy to eradicate the informal economy. «We demand decent work so that the labor market does not deteriorate at the expense of vulnerable workers and that exploiters do not continue to collect huge sums of money from workers and deregulation of the labor market», it concluded.
Crimes against workers' rights
Speaking to El Espanol, Aziz, one of the Moroccans hired by said company, explained that his compatriot promised him, two years ago, to «give him a work contract» and to «help him regularize» his stay in Spain. «In the end, I worked two years without a contract and I am still in an irregular situation», he added.
«His name is M., and he is Moroccan. He used to go to the bars of Fuente Álamo to look for irregular migrants to work in his second-hand clothing business», confirmed the 23-year-old man from Oujda.
He also explained that he had no choice but to accept the miserable working conditions imposed on him by his Moroccan compatriot. «We did everything : Unload trucks, move second-hand clothes carts, sort them by size, pack them», he explained, regretting not having «earned enough money to send» to his family in Morocco. He worked for ten hours daily and earned from 400 to 448 euros per month.
A local policeman confirmed to El Espanol the activity of the aforementioned family textile business. «The businessman and his two children are Moroccan and collected used clothes from I don't know how many places to ship them to Morocco». The officer added that for more than a year, the movement of people coming and going had caught the attention of the police.
A first visit to the site did not yield anything, because the migrants were hidden. The network also used «camouflaged cars to monitor the area» and guard against any surprise intervention by the authorities.
The leader of the network and his two sons were finally arrested, after a second search of the premises. They are due to appear before a court in Cartagena.
