A 51-year-old manager of a horticulture company from Erica has been sentenced to 2 months in prison for human trafficking. The manager hired a man from Morocco who worked illegally at the horticulture company. The case did receive a lot of media attention in recent months.
No exploitation
The court acquits the manager of exploitation. The company has to pay a fine of 20,000 euros, half of which is conditional with a probationary period of 3 years. In addition, the company and the manager were ordered to pay damages of approximately 11,700 euros to the illegal worker.
In determining the punishment, the court takes into account that the manager basically appears to have good intentions to employ the man. "He offered him shelter at the request of an employee which he knew for several years. But the downside of this friend’s obligation is that this initially well-meant help resulted in the man doing uninsured work," the court explains.
"This led to a very undesirable situation, which benefitted the horticultural company, and whereby it illegally saved (inter alia) labor costs. As a consequence of an accident during the - partly on its own initiative performed - illegal activities, the person also experienced major adverse effects. The court weighs, in punitive sense, the attempt to cover up the illegal housing at the moment when the illegal worker was admitted to hospital after this accident by stating a false name."