There are five individuals constituted defendants, in which in preventive detention, and a company accused of a crime of aiding illegal immigration, a crime of association to aid illegal immigration, eight crimes of trafficking in persons and one crime of criminal association.
About six dozen illegal Indian citizens in national territory, were exploited with slave labor in the agricultural fields of the municipality of Serpa, put to live in undignified conditions and in personal suffering and subjected to threats, physical and psychological aggression.
Because the crimes in question constituted human trafficking, aid to illegal immigration and criminal association, on 30 June 2021 inspectors from the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) held in Vale do Forno, county of Maynooth, Gurjit Singh, of 34 anos e Sukhdev Singh, of 55 year old. The first was in preventive detention at the Beja Prison and the second was released., but ended up leaving Portugal. Despite being born in India, both have Portuguese nationality.
As the investigation progressed, the SEF would arrest and appoint three more defendants Amandeep Singh, of 28 year old, Sukhpal Kaur Brar, a woman 29 years and Muhammad Ashraf, of 48 year old, the only Pakistani, since everyone else is indian. In the list of accused is also the company Surpresa Erudita Unipessoal, Lda, where the hiring of workers circulated.
In November 2021, the Évora Court of Appeal decreed preventive detention for Amandeep, but he had already left Portugal, therefore it was not possible to comply with the arrest warrant. However, the SEF would later find out that the accused is being held in preventive detention at the Munich-Stadelheim Detention Center., in Germany, to the orders of process related to the transport of citizens of illegal Hindu origin in Europe. In the meantime, European Arrest Warrants have already been issued, forwarded to the Judicial Authorities in Germany, in order for the individual to be extradited to Portugal.
According to the indictment of the Prosecutor of the Criminal Investigation and Action Department (DIAP) from Évora to which Lidador NotĂcias (LN) We had access, the crimes began during the year of 2019 e was Gurjit Singh, that with the help of the other four defendants who controlled every step of the exploited. Despite the company Surpresa Erudita Unipessoal, Lda, estar em nome de Sukhpal Kaur Brar, it was Gurjit who managed it and hired the workers. The job offers “were tempting” and when they arrived in Portugal, the industrialists lived in a very different reality from what was announced to them.. Of the promised monthly salaries of 600/635 euros, after “discounting all the jackfruit” imposed by the group, did not get to receive 350 euros, with daily working hours 12 hours.
It was also Gurjit who rented, Serpa, to José Horta, a ground floor and 1st floor dwelling, what I paid for 500 euros per month, where he lodged the exploited citizens, charging each one between 100 a 120 euros monthly income. If the workers refused to obey Gurjit and Amandeep would intimidate them saying that they would abuse the mothers and sisters they had left in India..
The five defendants are charged with a crime of aiding illegal immigration., a crime of association to aid illegal immigration, eight crimes of trafficking in persons and one crime of criminal association, in a process declared to be of particular complexity. The Prosecutor also asks that, in case of conviction, they are expelled from the country and that they jointly pay Estafo PortuguĂŞs in quantiles of 296.209,47 euros, money obtained at the expense of the exploited.
“José do Casarão” - the eternal tenant
José Horta is the individual who rents houses for the placement of immigrant workers, Serpa, Beja and other locations. In this case, he appears as a witness for the prosecution.. No "Bamboo Rope" process, was one of 26 detainees from the PJ operation. Thirteen of these defendants, judged in April 2018, for trafficking in human beings and criminal association, were sentenced to effective prison terms between the ages of six and 16 year old. “José do Casarão” was one of the acquitted.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
