A bakery and its three workshops in the Antwerp district of Merksem have been temporarily shut on orders from Antwerp Mayor, Bart De Wever, for human trafficking and endangering public health and safety.
The action came after it was found that twelve of the thirteen employees had irregular status. Several of them were residing in abysmal conditions in one of the workshops. The bakery came under police scrutiny during a broader investigation into illicit bakeries.
An inspection of the site revealed numerous violations. Allegedly, bread was being baked in under hygienic and perilous conditions. However the premises hadn’t been tidied in a long time, with moulds used for baking and racks for stacking bread found filthy. Fire safety conditions were also reportedly unsatisfactory.
The workers attempted to escape when the police arrived, but they were caught. Almost all of them were found without residence permits. Inside a workshop, “filthy mattresses and piles of cardboard littered a cockroach-infested room,” the city stated. There were also cats freely roaming around the bakery.
The company’s director has been arrested and put into preventive custody. The foreign office has ordered the workers to leave the territory.
