Greece Busts Human Traffickers for Exploiting Nepalese Migrant Workers

The migrants’ “unhealthy and degrading” accommodation in Greece. Photo: Greek police Police said on Thursday that they have dismantled a criminal gang which specialised in trafficking Nepalese men to be exploited for agricultural labour in Greece. Twenty-five men from Nepal were rescued while living in “unhealthy and degrading conditions”, Greek police said in a press release published on Thursday.  The rescue was part of a major operation carried out on Tuesday throughout the country, in which police said 10 members of a criminal organisation from Pakistan, including one of its leading members, were arrested.  They were variously charged with being part of a criminal group, human trafficking, labour exploitation and for violating the Migration Code and drug laws. As part of the operation, 100 people who lacked the correct legal documents were arrested. The criminal group appears to have been active since November 2024. Using social networks, members of the organisation, aided by a 29-year-old woman from Nepal acting as a mediator, recruited men from Nepal who were working legally in Balkan countries, mainly Romania.  The gang promised better wages in Greece for work, mainly in the agricultural sector. Those interested travelled to Greece by air or through the land border via North Macedonia. The expenses were covered by the organisation, “which they would gradually repay through their work, thus creating a bond of economic dependence and debt,” police said. Workers had their travel documents confiscated. Some were forced to pay money or were subjected to physical violence and threats, while in other cases, they were kidnapped and illegally detained to pay sums of money to the perpetrators in exchange for their release. The workers were employed mainly in the Peloponnese region, in places including Argolis, Ilia, Arcadia, Laconia, and Messinia. They also worked in Larissa, a city in the Thessaly region, and in the Boeotia region.  The migrant labourers lived in makeshift accommodation or warehouses. The agricultural work was exhausting and hard, with no hours of rest. The gang gave them little or no money under the pretext of paying off their “debt”. Those who resisted faced threats, intimidation, or physical violence, according to police. Greek police dismantled a similar gang exploiting Nepalese nationals in July 2024. The gang transferred migrants by air from Romania to Serbia and then from North Macedonia illegally to Greece to do agricultural labour.