Police arrest 29 over illegal care worker recruitment

Police arrested 29 people on Wednesday in a crackdown on an alleged network that recruited care workers illegally and exploited foreign workers in South Tyrol, ORF reported.

About 220 officers took part in the operation led by Bolzano’s financial police. Investigators searched 95 homes and offices in Bolzano, Trento, Udine, Gorizia, Pordenone, Pisa and Bologna, and filed 101 reports.

Investigators said two Georgian women led the group and recruited Georgian women seeking work in their home country. The women were allegedly brought illegally to Italy and housed in apartments provided by an Italian member of the network.

The workers were then placed with families seeking domestic help and care workers, mainly in South Tyrol and Trentino. The families were unaware of the scheme and had approached an established, officially licensed employment agency in Merano, run by two Italian nationals.

Investigators said personal data was manipulated and false identity documents created so that more than 100 Georgian women received false tax numbers and were presented as EU citizens. The arrangement allegedly bypassed rules on employing foreign nationals and annual immigration quotas for workers. The care workers were often deprived of their documents.