Indian Construction Workers from a Zrenjanin Factory Leave Serbia

Indian workers, factory Linglong in Zrenjanin (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

According to N1, a group of 11 Indian workers – suspected victims of labor trafficking -- who had been working on the construction of the tire factory Linglong in the town of Zrenjanin for almost two years, left Serbia in the evening of Feb. 11.

VOICE, the Vojvodina Research and Analytical Center, has published the statement of the workers’ lawyer according to which on Feb. 11, the Chinese company purchased airplane tickets to India for the workers, gave them back their passports, and paid them back wages.

Before leaving, the Indian workers had spent days giving statements to the police and the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zrenjanin investigating the suspected labor trafficking. The company management had not only tried to send the workers back home without pay, but also prevent them from talking to the police and media.

Suspecting human trafficking for labor exploitation in the case of the 11 Indian workers brought in by China Energy Engineering Group to work on the construction of a Linglang factory, Serbian anti-trafficking organization Astra filed an official report.

Linglong Company has denied ever employing workers from India on its site and claimed it terminated its contract with China Energy Engineering Group which had brought in both the Indian workers and the Vietnamese workers over two years before.