As Poslovni / Dnevnik report, this year alone, 105,000 work permits were issued. There are more and more workers from third-world countries like Nepal, the Philippines, and India. Agencies promised them good salaries, accommodation, meals, transportation, and visa processing, but many still had to pay hundreds of euros to come and work in Croatia.
Many were left on the road, without money, and practically in debt to slavery. What is worrying is that the Croatian institutions have almost no control over the whole situation, writes Dnevnik. The agencies through which they come often take money to get a job, and when they arrive, the salary and working conditions are nowhere near what was promised. Thus, they practically fall into debt slavery. Croatian institutions have no control over this situation nor a migration policy, but by October of this year, more than 105,000 work permits had already been issued.
Debt slavery
According to the Ministry of Labour, there are around 440 agencies that deal with temporary employment and bring foreign workers to Croatia. Another 424 natural and legal persons are involved in employment mediation.
“Let’s say that they would come to work in Croatia and if you promise someone that they will have a salary of 1200, 1300 euros, then they will give that money without any problem because he thinks that in two or three months they will earn enough to cover those debts. However, it happens that they come there and work for 500 euros, and with that money, they can never pay back that debt, and they are practically forced to work for even less in the future so that they can pay back that debt and somehow survive,” revealed the interviewee for Dnevnik.
The trade union says that this practice is entirely illegal.
Prostitution
Most of the workers claim that Croatian agencies took their money. To the e-mails sent to a dozen of these agencies, some more, some less politely replied that they do not take money from workers.
“I know from the stories that prostitution already appeared, and for very little money, because somehow they have to survive, they have to buy rice and food. And that’s the simplest, so to say, the easiest way to make money,” said one of the agency’s owners.
Who knows?
The Ministry of Interior stated that they “do not maintain data collections on reports of irregularities in the labour relations of citizens of the third countries.” In doing so, they issued almost 82,000 residence and work permits in 202 and nearly 106,000 in 2022 by the end of October.
What happens to these people, where they end up, and even whether the employer and temporary employment agencies that are, by the Labour Act, even at the Employment Office, they do not know.
The State Inspectorate responded to the journalist’s question that they do not keep precise records of where people are from when it comes to violating the law but that they have received a large number of petitions related to violations of the law regarding the work of foreigners.
In these cases, both employers and workers who worked illegally were punished. That was about 395 citizens of third countries during this year, and the employers paid HRK 4,650,000, writes Dnevnik.
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