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Caregivers recruited abroad with false promises of work, illegally introduced into Italy and then segregated at home, forced to work continuous shifts up to 24 hours a day, with reduced salaries and without rest. This morning, in Rose and Rende, in the province of Cosenza, and at the same time in Romania, the Carabinieri for the Protection of Work carried out an order issued by the investigating judge of Catanzaro.
Seven people have been subjected to personal precautionary measures and are being investigated, for various reasons, for criminal association, illicit intermediation and multi-aggravated labor exploitation, multi-aggravated aiding and abetting of illegal immigration and self-laundering. A married couple, an Italian and a Moldovan citizen, ended up in prison, according to the investigators who created the system and headed a fictitious employment agency, and four other foreign citizens, owners and drivers of a Romanian international transport company, reached through the international police authorities. A Moldovan citizen, daughter-in-law of the first two, who collaborated in the reception and logistical management of the victims, ended up under house arrest.
The investigations, coordinated by the Catanzaro DDA, made it possible to reconstruct a system that recruited abroad and illegally introduced into the national territory over one hundred and seventy women, mainly of Moldovan origin, destined for employment as carers and, residually, in the catering sector in the province of Cosenza, in conditions of serious exploitation.
According to what emerged, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the workers, determined by the economic poverty in the country of origin and the clandestine status in Italy, the victims were identified through social channels and word of mouth, with the false promise of a stable job, and made to arrive in Italy with tourist visas, valid for only 90 days and not for work reasons. The investigations revealed that the women were then transported aboard buses and minivans of a Romanian company along the Moldova-Romania-Italy route, with a sorting hub in Puglia and then taken to Rose, systematically evading border controls relating to exceeding the terms of stay, and temporarily housed in an apartment in Rose, a fictitious B&B to evade checks, while awaiting employment.
The carers were subjected to forced cohabitation and continuous shifts up to 24 hours a day, in the total absence of a contract and social security or welfare coverage, deprived of the weekly rest foreseen by the collective agreement or forced to give it up in exchange for minimal flat-rate increases. Paid with clearly disproportionate salaries, between 700 and 800 euros per month, rarely 1,000 euros for complex cases, they were forced into degrading accommodations without privacy, often sleeping in the same room as the elderly person or on sofas in the living room.
The victims were also bound by an imposed debt, with a deduction from the first salary of 300 euros as a ‘commission’ for finding work, 150 euros for travel and 20 euros for the SIM, in addition to 100 euros demanded from the requesting families as an agency fee for the intermediation, and then intimidated with threats of dismissal or forced repatriation in the event of protests, requests for rest or complaints to the authorities.
The illicit profits, according to the prosecutors, were self-laundered by the promoters through fictitious bank transfers from relatives and accomplices abroad, reusing them in the purchase of a property in Rende. The investigating judge also ordered the preventive seizure of a property in Rende, purchased with illicit earnings, of five vehicles including large tourism buses and minivans, permanently used for cross-border transfer and sorting of illegal labor, and of the total sum of 75,600 euros, deemed to be profit from the contested crimes.