Italian police on Tuesday
arrested eight people in a probe into an alleged gangmastering
gang who allegedly exploited Bangladeshi workers in La Spezia
yacht-building worksites.
Police said dozens of workers were threatened, beaten and
insulted and paid between four and five euros an hour while
working on the luxury yachts.
The alleged gangmasters were arrested by police in La Spezia,
nearby Savona, Ancona in Marche, and Carrara in northern
Tuscany, police said.
Police also seized around one million euros in the operation,
including company stakes, real estate and luxury cars.
The incriminated company was said to have employed about 150
workers, most of them Bangladeshi.
The workers were forced to do heavy and dangerous work such as
welding and painting luxury super-yachts in 14-hour shifts for a
maximum 4-5 euros an hour, police said.
The workers were not allowed to rest and were constantly harried
and mistreated, police said.
When they got sick, even with COVID, they got no compensation,
police said.
The workers' pay packets were much bigger than what they
actually got because they were forced to go to bancomats and
return much of the money, police said.
Polices said the alleged gangmasters took advantage of the
Bangladeshi's need for money.
The company has been placed into "judicial control" to safeguard
the workers' jobs, prosecutors said.
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