Don’t Let Belgrade Drown Movement: Foreign or Serbian Nationals Must Not Be Victims of Forced Labor

Worker

Don’t Let Belgrade Drown Movement on Nov. 17 said in a statement that it had demanded from the relevant state bodies to undertake everything necessary to prevent forced labor of the Vietnamese nationals engaged on the construction of a plant of company Linglong in Zrenjanin.

“Representatives of Don’t Let Belgrade Drown Movement have visited the workers who live in a camp in the industrial zone in Zrenjanin and they have seen that their living space is extremely tiny and accommodates a large number of people in the conditions which are inhuman and inadequate for human beings as they have no electricity, water or proper conditions to maintain hygiene,” it is said in the statement. In communication with the workers, Don’t Let Belgrade Drown Movement representatives learned that “the employer has taken their passports and that they have been pressured to keep silent and do not speak about their difficult position.”

According to the statement, “some of the workers have been fined with RSD50,000 for speaking with reporters,” but despite that, the workers have been on strike twice over poor food and unpaid wages.    

Lawyer Rodoljub Sabic on Nov. 17 described as “literally shameful” the response of the relevant state bodies to “obviously illegal and ultimately inhuman treatment of workers by their employer,” at the construction site of company Linglong in Zrenjanin. Sabic stressed that it was the duty of state bodies to respond to such events, noting that they were obliged to ensure the enforcement of national laws in the entire territory of Serbia.