Next scandal: raids for illegal temporary work in the meat industry - Tönnies spokesman comments

Since early Wednesday morning, police officers have been searching several meat plants in five federal states in connection with the illegal smuggling of workers.

• Since early Wednesday morning,

  raids have taken place

  in several

  meat plants

  in five federal states.

• The

  searches

  are about the suspicion of

  illegal smuggling of workers

  .

• According to its own information,

  Germany's largest meat company

  Tönnies

  is not

  affected

  by the

  searches

  .

Weißenfels / Munich - The

carrying out numerous

since early Wednesday morning

in connection with the

into the

.

About

are mainly in

and 

 , said a spokesman for the Federal Police section for central Germany.

There were further searches in 

,

and 

.

Meat industry: Federal police conduct raids in several federal states

According to the

, more than

searched.

The investigations are directed against

the ages of 41 and 56.

Among them are eight men and two women.

It is about the allegation of

and

.

++ Currently ++

Large-scale deployment of the federal police in 5 federal states.

On behalf of the judiciary and with the support of @bpol_bepo, searches of residential and business premises are taking place at the same time.

The background is an investigation into suspected smuggling of foreigners.

pic.twitter.com/kRdoxUvbqt

- Federal Police Central Germany (@bpol_pir) September 23, 2020

are accused of acting

independently of each other but following the same pattern.

They are said to have provided Ukrainian nationals in particular with

, the spokesman said.

With these, they were then referred to

.

The spokesman did not say which companies it was exactly.

The

are said to have supported the people here in dealing with authorities, organized accommodation and transport for them, but also

these services

.

Raids in meat industry: suspected illegal employment of temporary workers

The

are about the

a "dark field," said a spokesman.

Among other things,

confiscated in order to investigate the

“very complicated company structure”

.

A

spokesman for the

said

they wanted

to secure

as much

as possible, for example to

understand

the

and

the companies

.

In addition, it is especially important how many

you find in the

.

These are

be treated and questioned.

The background to the

is that the

stopped

a large number of travelers with

during their controls at border crossings and train stations

.

A

for the

set up.

The special commission has been conducting investigations

since

.

The Halle public prosecutor's office and its branch in Naumburg are responsible.

Searches in the meat industry: According to Tönnies, not affected

According to its own information,

Germany's largest meat company

is not

affected

by the

.

“

So far there has been no search

at our

location in Weißenfels,” said a company spokesman on

.

operates

its

in

,

one of the main focuses of the

in

, according to the

,

and employs around 2,200 people there.

"We have no knowledge of which companies in Weissenfels were searched," said the spokesman.

There

were also no

at other

in Germany

.

Federal government: Bill for reforms in the meat industry

The

in the

and the

foreign employees recently came

into focus again

after several

at

and other 

.

Critics attributed the outbreaks to poor

and the fact that many workers were housed in cramped

accommodation

.

Many

work

in the

are

employed by subcontractors.

The raids on the #meat industry are good and proper.

We must not tolerate slave-like work in Germany!

This should become a habit for the #meat barons so that these mafia-like working conditions are finally put down!

- Bernd Riexinger (@b_riexinger) September 23, 2020

In

response to the

launched

a

for reforms in the

.

This stipulates that

in the 

such as slaughtering, cutting and processing, may no longer be carried out by external employees in the future.

and 

 should be

in the industry from 2021

.

The

of slaughterhouse employees is also to be improved and

in the factories increased.

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