Italy: Police dismantle a network accused of exploiting migrants

Rome: Carabinieri police have dismantled an alleged criminal network accused of exploiting migrants in the central Italian seaside resort of Rimini.

According to the investigation carried out by Italy’s Carabinieri police force, migrants were asked to pay thousands of euros so companies pretended to hire them in order for them to be allowed into Italy.

The alleged network is thought to have been based in the central seaside town of Rimini.

The investigation kicked off after a migrant reported the alleged exploiters to the authorities which led to an operation on Monday (December 9) in which Carabinieri police executed 12 arrest warrants and other precautionary measures ordered by the State Attorney’s office in Rimini on charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration, exploiting workers and prostitution.

The suspects included an employee of the state welfare agency INPS, responsible for managing Italy’s pensions and social security, a union member and an accountant who resided in another region, investigative sources said.

Four of the suspects were jailed, seven were placed under house arrest, one was ordered to report to the authorities and another one is wanted by police.

The alleged criminal network, which operated between 2017 and 2020, is believed to have set up an organization that recruited people from North Africa who were willing to pay to enter Italy.

Entrepreneurs involved in the network allegedly gave them fake contracts and requested unemployment benefits once the fake short-term contracts had formally expired.

The organization also allegedly organized fake weddings. Migrants were often exploited once they obtained a real job and forced to obey the organization in order to get a stay permit. Some young female victims were forced into prostitution, according to investigative sources.

Charges pressed by Rimini prosecutors against the suspects include aiding and abetting illegal immigration, labor and prostitution exploitation, corruption, fake statements on documents for judicial authorities, aiding and abetting the permanent presence of irregular foreign citizens, possession of stolen goods, and fake statements by a private citizen in a public document.

The four people who were jailed include Calabrian suspect Giuseppe T. who is accused of contacts with organized crime. According to the Rimini preliminary investigations judge (GIP) in charge of the case, Giuseppe T. through different companies he managed – including a hotel in Pennabili (Rimini) administered by his brother-in-law Pietro B., who is also in jail – was in charge of a “well-organized system” that pretended to hire non-EU foreign citizens.

The foreigners are believed to have paid up to 6,000 euros to obtain a residence permit and stayed at a hotel in Bellaria Igea Marina owned by a company of which Pietro B. was owner and sole administrator.

According to investigators, however, Giuseppe T. was behind the whole operation.The run-down hotel, which was unsuitable for tourists, hosted the foreign citizens who paid up to 300 euros per month and who were employed in different activities.

In some cases, the GIP stressed, workers who were “clearly in a state of need and undocumented” were treated in a “decidedly inhumane and degrading manner.”
Key figures in the whole operation, according to investigators, included an INPS employee in Rimini — who was placed under house arrest — who is accused of helping the organization obtain subsidies, an accountant based in Rimini and Pesaro (also under house arrest).

The accountant was allegedly aware that Giuseppe T. was behind the companies involved in the operation and presented applications for foreign workers who were allowed into the country as part of the 2020 flow decree. A decree issued by the Italian government which stipulates how many migrant workers can enter the country legally to work, often in seasonal and temporary jobs, like harvesting or working in tourism or gastronomy.

Also allegedly involved is a union member in Rimini. She was also placed under house arrest for allegedly helping migrants apply for permits and subsidies although she was aware their job contracts were fake.