The National Police have made three separate arrests of people in mainland Spain, for exploiting the situation of irregular immigrants and subjecting them to ‘slave labour’ for up to 16 hours a day, without a break, for little or no money.
The two directors of a company in Alicante have been arrested for the exploitation of 16 migrants, of whom 9 are in an irregular situation, in their vegetable harvesting and distribution company. They forced them to clean and peel onions from six in the morning to ten at night without a break, not even to eat.
The man and a woman that have been arrested, only paid them 5 cents per kilo of onions they completed, and doubled if they reached 100 kilos in a day, so that after 16 hours of hard labour, they received 10 euros wages.
The investigation was carried out by different departments of the National Police in collaboration with the Alicante Labour Inspectors, who have also arrested another business owner for exploiting staff at his car washing business.
He allegedly forced six of his employees (five of whom are of foreign origin, two of them illegal) to work seven days a week for wages of 140 euros (20 euros per day). However, if they fell ill and could not go to work, the arrested man did not pay them for that week.
All three, aged 32, 46 and 54 years old, are accused of crimes against human rights, the rights of workers, and favouring illegal immigration. They are all in custody awaiting trial.
