A 31-year-old man from Brussels has been sentenced by the Brussels criminal court to 40 months in prison and a fine of €32,000 (both suspended) for abusing a group of Egyptian workers.
The man, Y.Q., ran a construction company but was guilty of human trafficking and a series of violations of social legislation, the court found.
The case began on 5 October 2018 when a group of 14 Egyptian workers holed up for a whole day in a crane on a building site in Hove (Antwerp province). Their protest came after their wages were withheld for three months and they were made to live in deplorable conditions.
The workers had come to Belgium from Egypt to work for Y.Q.’s construction company, but the accommodation he provided was a dilapidated building in Zaventem. Their salary was just €50 euros a week.
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It also emerged that the workers thought they were working for Y.Q.’s Egyptian construction company, when in fact they were declared as employees of an Italian construction company that had allegedly seconded them to Belgium. According to the court, this was clearly a fictitious and fraudulent affair.
It also emerged that Y.Q. had also recruited Egyptian refugees without residence permits in the Maximilien Park in Brussels and that he had not filed a Dimona declaration for his labourers.
The court found that Y.Q. had been guilty of human trafficking. The socialist trade union ABVV brought a civil action and was awarded damages of €2,500.
