BRATISLAVA, April 8, (WEBNOVINY) – The police have dissolved an organized gang, which was profiting on illegal labor of foreigners. One police officer and a director of a labor office were members of the gang. Eight people have been charged with human trafficking committed by an organized group. Five Ukrainians, a Slovak citizen of Russian nationality, a police officer from the foreigner police department and a labor office director stand accused of organizing a wide-spread illegal employment of laborers from Ukraine in Slovakia. Six of them have been accused of legalizing an income from criminal activities. As the Police Presidium spokeswoman Denisa Baloghova told SITA, two state employees have been also accused of abuse of power, which is punishable with four to ten years imprisonment. The accused of human smuggling could be imprisoned to two to eight years, legalizing illegal incomes can be punished by 12 to 20 years. The police have asked their Ukrainian colleagues for cooperation.
According to the police, the group’s members have been employing foreigners illegally from 2007. Ukrainians were promised jobs in Slovakia; they also obtained Slovak or Hungarian visa which allowed them to enter the country. They were employed in various companies either without permissions, or with permissions obtained illegally. The permits for their stay in Slovakia were obtained by the police officer. He cooperated with the rest of the group and also informed them on eventual inspections of foreigners in their places of work. The police currently know of 65 foreigners employed in this way, but their numbers will most probably be higher. The group’s members took most money ‘their’ Ukrainians earned and only gave them a minimal portion of it, making at least 472 million euro. They also had a cover company owned by a different person, which signed the contracts with Slovak businesses on providing services. “The foreigners got jobs with inadequate working conditions,” underlined Baloghova.
Residence permissions of ten Ukrainians, who gave false data in their applications, were already canceled. These workers were also banned from entering Slovakia for the next five years.
SITA
