MADRID, Nov 23 Spanish Civil Guard detained in a populated area Algeciras, autonomous community of Andalusia, a Ukrainian couple allegedly recruited and then exploited their compatriots as housekeepers, the kingdom's interior ministry said in a press release on Thursday.
«The Civil Guard arrested a married couple of Ukrainian nationality in Algeciras who were recruiting women of the same nationality to use them as domestic servants. The investigation began in early September following a complaint from one of the victims,» the report says.
According to the department, the detainees offered work in Spain as nannies through social networks. Having agreed on working conditions, the victims immediately came to the country. However, the working conditions were very different from those agreed upon.
«Lack of an employment contract, continuous work without a break even for meals, constant psychological violence from the married couple, threats, lack of intimate and personal life, a ban on leaving the house and even a ban on communicating with other workers in the same house — these are just some of the conditions they had to face,” notes the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
During the investigation, agents found out that this was not an isolated incident, but a practice that the couple followed for at least a year and a half. Investigators were able to identify and contact at least eleven victims who reported that they had experienced similar experiences with the couple.