Italy’s police announced on Wednesday (June 26th) that they have cracked down on a human trafficking network that smuggled Chinese people into Italy using luxury cars, confiscated their passports, and exploited them as slave labor.
In April this year, a Chinese citizen was stopped during a routine check at the border between Italy and Slovenia, and four undocumented Chinese passengers were found in the car, leading law enforcement to suspect the existence of a smuggling criminal gang.
Authorities stated that nine members of the human trafficking network were arrested during the operation, and 77 undocumented immigrants were identified, many of whom were women, and some were minors aged between 15 and 18.
According to a police statement, the traffickers disguised these immigrants as “carefree Asian citizens, well-dressed with little luggage, traveling in powerful luxury cars driven by Chinese citizens who have lived in Italy for many years and speak Italian.”
During the investigation, the routes taken by these Chinese individuals were traced. They flew in groups to peripheral European countries such as Serbia where they could enter without a visa. They then traveled by car through Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia before reaching the Italian border.
The statement revealed that these smuggled Chinese individuals were taken to a safe house near Venice, where they stayed for one to two days before being sent to various regions of Italy or other EU countries like France and Spain.
The trafficking organization confiscated their passports at the safe house, and from then on, they were subjected to “severe exploitation until they repaid the debt owed for the journey.”
Police mentioned that these smuggled Chinese individuals “had no possibility of living freely or semi-freely, no access to medical assistance, and had nothing besides a bed and a place to work indefinitely.” They described this as a form of “enslavement.”
In recent years, with the Chinese economy in crisis and the violent control by the Chinese Communist authorities, more and more Chinese people are risking crossing overseas in search of freedom and living space. Some Western countries like Europe and America have become popular destinations for Chinese immigrants seeking a new life.