Chinese migrants smuggled into Italy in luxury cars and exploited, police say
- The victims crossed the border posing as well-dressed Asian nationals in expensive vehicles, and were later treated like slaves
Italian police said on Wednesday that they have busted a Chinese trafficking network that used luxury cars to smuggle Chinese migrants into Italy, before confiscating their passports and treating them like slaves.
The smugglers had the migrants pose as “unsuspecting Asian citizens, well-dressed, with little luggage, travelling in powerful and expensive cars, driven by Chinese citizens who had lived in Italy for years and spoke Italian”, police said in a statement.
Investigators were alerted to a possible ring after a Chinese citizen was stopped at the border between Italy and Slovenia in April during routine checks, and found to be transporting four undocumented Chinese migrants.
A probe uncovered “the existence of a consistent, continuous flow of irregular Chinese citizens who, in small groups, were flown to the external European borders in countries (mainly Serbia) where they entered with a visa exemption”, the statement said.
“And then, from there, they were accompanied by car, through Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia, up to the Italian state border”, it said.
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Smuggled migrants were transported to a safe house near Venice, where they stayed for one or two days before being taken on either to areas of Italy or other European Union countries like France and Spain.
