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A Lugo judge is investigating the owner of a home care and dependents services company for allegedly having exploited dozens of immigrants of Latin American origin, most of them women. The investigation revealed that women received, always in envelopes, wages well below the usual despite facing marathon days, sometimes without rest from Monday to Sunday. The telephone punctures, the transcript of which ABC has had access to, confirm that Montserrat L., representative and manager of Asistencia Castroverde -based in the Lugo municipality of the same number-, managed to hide from their clients that they were contracting the services of people in a situation irregular in Spain, mostly Latin women.
Intervened his variety of actions pointing in this direction.
On December 20, 2019 one of the girls returned a call to Montserrat L. The businesswoman reprimanded the woman for having told her family that she had hired her, that she had only been in Spain for a month. “You tell him that you have been here for a month, you cannot say that, how are you going to say that you have been here for a month? Can you hear me? I told him no”, the businesswoman reproached this girl. As your interlocutor did not just listen to the situation, the investigated insists and tells you what she had to tell the mentioned client: "I told him 'no', that is that you would misunderstand him, he would have been in Lugo for a month, but with me he worked in Orense " . "It's just that you can't say you've been here a month, because if you say you've been here a month, they send you home whistling, do you understand?" She added. And he insisted to the victim: “You tell him that you have been in Lugo for a month, but that you worked with me in Orense (…) you also say that he told them that he had never worked (…) you cannot say that.”
The coast of Ourense
But more clues emerge from that conversation than these maneuvers to hide the irregular situation of the victims. Montserrat L. also tells the girl that her client had told her that the worker had a three-year-old boy, showing her his doubts about whether the employee has to have drafts. The victim assured Montserrat L. that she did not go to the library: "If I commit, I commit." And the businesswoman investigated and challenged her: “I already told her that, don't worry (…) that the girl doesn't go to the library for at least a month, then… we're going to talk. And if she wants a library, I send someone else. But they were all alarmed, because you said you had been here a month, do you understand?». And the businesswoman insists on Orense's alibi, when the victim staggers while vocalizing the name of the city, a sign that she possibly did not even know of its existence: "Orense, yes, Orense (...) is another province here, so you say that to her (...) and that's it (...) Galicia has four provinces, La Coruña, Lugo, Orense and Pontevedra. Well, in Orense, okay? ”, The investigated businesswoman insists ad nauseam.
The investigation of the case, which began in early December 2019 – a few days before the previously reproduced telephone 'prick' – has been commissioned by agents of the Lugo Civil Guard command under the Investigation Court number 3 of this city. In addition to Montserrat L., four other people are accused in the case, as alleged collaborators. And it is that, as the reports of the Armed Institute collect, to 'employ' these women in an irregular situation in private homes in the province of Lugo, the main investigated used "third parties" to capture the victims and pay them » only presumably lower than those received (...), without complying with the relevant legal procedures and taking advantage of their situation of vulnerability, economic need and irregular stay”.
Five investigated
As explained to this newspaper by the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia (TSXG), the five investigated have already testified before the investigating judge and, in principle, no more appearances are expected. Despite this, the investigation remains open because there are some diligent to practice. Several of the workers have also appeared before the judge, although the total number of victims –according to the TSXG– is “unspecified”. Judicial sources allude to the fear of people in an irregular situation to denounce situations of exploitation. Despite the lack of definitive data, the main investigation, in addition to the intermediate conversations, gave an idea of the number of victims that could suffer the exploitation of this plot. "Today we have more than 70 interns and they don't have any -car- licenses", the businessman explained to a client who asked him about logistical mobility issues. In another call he says that he has "76 inmates, all foreigners." However, the alleged victims are not only women. The investigated herself tells her interlocutor: “We also have five inmates. I'm telling you in case you have to force yourself, or whatever, there's no problem with that”.
The women received their –low– salaries in envelopes. "Hello, Montse, Martina has just come to leave me the envelope and it is complete," explained, for example, one of the women to Montserrat L. in an exchange of WhatsApp messages, in which she also included a photograph of the sober . For all this, the ringleader of the plot had the collaboration, above all, of a worker from a bar in Lugo, who was in charge of delivering the envelopes to said establishment. In addition, in some conversations intercepted by the Civil Guard, Montserrat L. asked the clients to hire the caregivers who saw the bank income.
A crime of labor exploitation against immigrants
The investigating magistrate of Lugo investigates the businesswoman and four collaborators for labor exploitation, according to what the TSXG reported to ABC. Specifically, referred to in article 311 bis of the Penal Code. This section recognizes that "whoever repeatedly employs or provides employment to foreigners who lack a work permit, or employs or provides employment has a minor who lacks a work permit.
