Police raid abattoirs across Germany accused of smuggling in workers
More than 800 German police officers were involved in a series of simultaneous raids on Wednesday morning, targeting more than 40 slaughterhouses accused of smuggling in migrant workers illegally. Mass coronavirus outbreaks at a number of slaughterhouses in Germany have recently shed light on dubious working practices in the industry.
Since the early hours of Wednesday morning, German police have been conducting searches in five federal states – primarily Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, as well as Berlin, Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.
The raid was directed against two temporary employment agencies based in Germany and Poland – although the names of the companies have not yet been released. They are said to have been acting independently of one another but employing the same business practices, primarily in the meat industry.
The companies targeted are accused of bringing people from Eastern Europe to Germany with forged or falsified documents. They are said to have supported the workers, who primarily hail from Romania, with visits to the authorities, accommodation and transport, but also deducted these services from their wages.
By Abi Carter
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