They promised work and accommodation, but instead kept them in forced labour: criminal gang exposed. VIDEO+PHOTOS
Police have dismantled a large-scale labour exploitation scheme, the organisers of which were preying on people in vulnerable situations.
Police established that the ringleader was a 35-year-old resident of Zhytomyr region, who had enlisted the help of two relatives and an acquaintance, reports Censor.NET.
Details
The suspects scouted the area around Kyiv’s Central Railway Station for people without a permanent address, documents or a stable income, who were in financial difficulty and looking for any opportunity to earn money.
The perpetrators persuaded them to go to what they claimed was a legal and well-paid job with free accommodation and meals. However, instead of the promised conditions, the people were taken to timber processing plants in the Zhytomyr region. There, their mobile phones and passports were immediately confiscated.
The victims were forced to work for free and beyond normal hours at sawmills and in workshops producing plywood and wooden panels.
In particular, the people lived in appalling, unsanitary conditions under constant surveillance.
To exert psychological pressure, the suspects threatened the victims with physical violence and used force in cases of disobedience. The group members divided the money earned from the victims’ labour among themselves.
