According to the Italian police, on Wednesday they have broken up a Chinese smuggling network that has been using luxurious vehicles to smuggle Chinese immigrants into Italy before confiscating their passports and treating them as slaves.
The traffickers had made the migrants appear like “innocent Asian citizens, elegantly dressed with few luggage, traveling in powerful and expensive cars driven by Chinese citizens who have lived for years in Italy and can speak Italian.” this was said by the police in a statement.
In April, when an Italian citizen was found carrying four illegal Chinese across Slovenia border through regular inspection procedures it came to light that there might be a ring of these people.
According to the statement, investigations revealed that there was “a constant flow of illegal Chinese nationals coming into Europe across its external borders (mainly Serbia) on small groups who were granted visa free entry.”
The statement also said: “And then again others from there traveled with car via Bosnia Croatia and Slovenia up to Italian state border.”
These smuggled migrants are taken to a house near Venice where they stay for one or two days before being moved either within Italy or other European Union countries such as France or Spain.
Their passports were taken away at the safe house by traffickers and this marked the beginning of their exploitation until they paid off the debts incurred during travel. The statement reads: “…and from then on…(they) would be forced into hard labour until they finish paying back all expenses spent on their transit”.
The police further described it as “slavery”, adding that these immigrants were kept captive without any way of leading independent or partially independent lives, no medical help; just mattresses for sleep, eternity work positions etc.
In an operation involving nine arrests allegedly belonging to human trafficking networks; 77 illegal migrants were identified among whom many women while others were children aged between fifteen and eighteen years old according to Suspect.
