Illegal job network broken up

3 August.2004

MADRID – The paramilitary Guardia Civil claimed Tuesday to have broken up a network that exploited Pakistani and Indian immigrants by selling them false documentation and taking part of their wages.

Four members of the gang were arrested, along with 31 immigrants, most of them employed on fruit farms in the Amposta and Tortosa districts of southern Catalonia.

The Guardia said the gang sold false entry papers to Spain to the immigrants at prices ranging from EUR 8,000 to EUR 14,000, which also included a charge for basic lodgings in Spain.

They then charged a further EUR 5,000 to EUR 6,000 to provide false work permits, residency and identity cards, and for arranging contracts.

The immigrants had to pay half their wages to the gang, were charged a daily fee for transport to get to work, and also “paid” for inexistent insurance policies.

The Guardia said the ringleader of the gang was a man of Pakistani origin, while the other three arrested were all Spaniards. They also netted a “large quantity” of false and forged documents.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news