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Federal police have been in action in five federal states since early Wednesday morning to conduct searches related to the illegal trafficking of workers for the meat industry.
About 800 officials are mainly in Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, a spokesman for the federal police in central Germany said on Wednesday. There are more searches in Berlin, Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to the federal police, more than 40 residential and commercial premises are being searched. The accused companies are said to have brought people from Eastern Europe to Germany with forged or forged documents. A special commission has been investigating this since April 2020. The Halle prosecutor’s office and its branch in Naumburg are responsible.
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According to the Federal Police, the investigations are directed against 10 main defendants between 41 and 56 years old. Among them are eight men and two women. It concerns the denunciation of commercial and gang smuggling and falsification of documents.
Two companies are accused of acting independently of each other but following the same pattern. It is said that mainly Romanians were brought to Germany with false documents. They would have supported them with visits to the authorities, organized accommodation and transportation for them, but also deducted these services from their salaries. According to the information, the investigators seized values worth 1.5 million euros. Illegally entered temporary workers are threatened with expulsion from Germany.
After frequent corona infections in meat plants, working conditions in the industry and the accommodation of foreign employees again came into focus. This sparked a nationwide debate about working conditions in the industry.
On September 10, the Bundestag addressed the so-called Occupational Safety and Health Control Act at first reading. It states that the main activities of the meat industry, such as slaughter, cutting and processing, can no longer be carried out by outside employees. Employment contracts and temporary work should be banned in the industry from 2021. (dpa)
