Victims in case on slave labour in Rostov Region afraid to testify

A detainee is suspected of holding eighteen people in slavery at one of the farms in the Aksaisky District. The investigating department, where a confrontation with the victims was being prepared, was approached by members of a Roma community, who started a scuffle on the spot.

The law enforcement bodies received a message that residents of the Rostov Region were illegally held and their labour was used at a farm in the Aksaisky District.

“Every day people were forced to do heavy work in the agricultural fields for free,” the regional Investigating Department of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) reported on its official website.

A resident of Azov suspected of using slave labour has been detained, the “Privet-Rostov.ru” Telegram channel reports. After the suspect’s detention, members of the Roma community approached the investigating department in the Aksaisky District. The Romas began filming the victims and accused them of slander. They shouted that all the accusations were lies and threatened to send people to the fields again. After the incident, some of the victims felt afraid to testify, the “Don Mash” Telegram channel reports.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on May 22, volunteers made public a story of Stanislav Zhukov, a citizen of Belarus, who escaped from labour slavery from a brick factory near Kaspiysk.