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Due to the alleged commercial smuggling of workers, the Federal Police carried out raids throughout Germany on commercial and residential premises of the meat industry. The researchers focus on two companies.
The federal police have been conducting searches in five federal states since the early hours of the morning regarding the illegal trafficking of workers for the meat industry. About 800 officers are mainly in Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, said a spokesman for the federal police in Central Germany. There are more searches in Berlin, Papenburg in Lower Saxony, Chemnitz in Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to the federal police, more than 40 residential and commercial premises are being searched. The focus is on Weißenfels in Saxony-Anhalt and Twist and Garbsen in Lower Saxony. The Halle prosecutor’s office and its Naumburg branch are responsible. The accused companies are said to have brought people from Eastern Europe to Germany with forged or forged documents.
Two companies accused
According to the Federal Police, the investigations are directed against ten main suspects 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. According to the investigators, values worth 1.5 million euros were seized.
Two companies are accused of acting independently of each other but following the same pattern. It is said that they mainly brought Romanians 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.
Temporary workers face deportation
The action is about obtaining as much evidence as possible, for example, to understand payment transactions and communication between companies, a federal police spokesman said. In addition, the number of illegally entered temporary workers you find in accommodation is particularly important. These need to be addressed through identification and questioned. Illegally admitted 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.
In a first reading on September 10, the Bundestag discussed the so-called Work Safety and Health Control Act. 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.
