[MGSA-L] 'We dreamt of Europe but awoke as slaves in Megara'

[June Samaras]

enet.gr EnetEnglish.gr, 17:47 Thursday 5 September 2013

'We dreamt of Europe but awoke as slaves in Megara'

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Prosecutor to examine allegations of slave labour and trafficking scams

They slave for up to 15 hours a day in chicken farms or on vegetable
fields for wages that are never paid. Others have lost everything
they've earned in a scam that promised them visas for their relatives.
Now a prosecutor is looking into the appalling conditions faced by a
group of Pakistani migrant workers in Megara, outside Athens

The shocking living conditions of a large group of Pakistani nationals
in a town west of Athens and allegations that they were victims of a
punitive trafficking scam is the focus of a preliminary investigation
by prosecutor, after their plight was highlighted in an article in
last Saturday's Eleftherotypia newspaper.

The report found some 110 men living in primitive conditions in
disused poultry sheds outside Megara who said they were working 15
hours a day for little or even no pay, on local chicken farms or
vegetable fields.

The "residents" at the old poultry farm said that they were were being
charged €40 rent a day for "rooms" that once housed chickens but were
now sleeping 3-4 workers on foam bedding. During the summer,
temperatures soared inside the sheds.

With only a couple of toilets and showers are available in the
"village" for the use of the men, the conditions are comparable to
those in Manolada, where in April foreman opened fire on migrant
workers demanding wages.

(Photo: Orestis Seferoglou, Eleftherotypia)Written by journalist
Alexandra Tzavella, the report was published in Eleftherotypia on
August 31 under the title "We dreamt of Europe but awoke as slaves in
Megara" and It was with photographs taken by Orestis Seferoglou.

The head of the local Pakistani community, a man called Sabir, told
Tzavella: "In Megara, there are around 1,000 legal and 700
undocumented Pakistanis, who work 12-15 hours a day, and eight out of
ten bosses don't pay."

At one stage, Sabir said, Megara had 3,500 Pakistani residents, but
many have now returned home.

"They worked for so many years here, but left empty handed. Those who
stayed have stayed because they owe a lot of money."

"We're fools, we've no sense. Listen to what I'm telling you. We are
fools. They say to us 'come and work and I'll pay your tomorrow' and
we go. There's one guy who hasn't paid anything in three years. 'Don't
stop now. I'll give it to you.' And do you know what he wanted to give
me? €50 a month.  If I were to beg, I'd get €50 a month. I am not a
beggar," Sabir told the newspaper.

Another worker, Mohammed Nasim, said that that he'd come to work in
Greece for a better life.

"But now your boss says 'keep quiet'. Who do you want to come for you,
Golden Dawn or the police? We just don't know where we go."

Apart from looking into allegations that workers are not being paid by
local farm owners, the prosecutor will also investigate the most
serious complaint from the Pakistanis, that they were tricked in a
massive trafficking scam run by a local man.

A number of Pakistanis in the settlement say that they were done out
of considerable amounts of money by a local who promised to arrange
visas for their friends and relatives.

Although they paid the money, their relatives never arrived, the
Pakistanis say. Sabir, the community leader says, the sum involved
runs to "hundreds of thousands of euros".

The victims don't have money to hire a lawyer to fight their case,
they say they have evidence of the money handed over to this
individual.

One of the longest-serving workers in the area, 63-year-old Mohammad
Yunus explains how he has hoodwinked by the scam, that devoured more
and more of his money and left him penniless.

"He told me three years ago that he wanted people to work for him. He
said 'Bring me your sons and nephews' and now he owes me €16,000 in
total, €4,000 for each of my children. At first, I gave him a €2,800
deposit. I borrowed the rest of the money, says Yunus, a legal
immigrant who has worked in the area for 40 years.

"Then he slowly took more from me. 'Give me some cash for the
embassy,' he said, 'the paperwork has come, give some more' until I
paid him the lot. Now I'm in pain. I've worked for nothing. Now I have
to work to pay what I owe."

* Alexandra Tzavella's full article (in Greek) on the Pakistani
workers in Megara appeared in the print edition of Eleftherotypia on
August 31

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