15 May 2013, 18:00
"Alternativa": in Dagestan, seven workers were kept at factory by force
In Dagestan, seven workers were forcibly kept at a stone work factory; their documents were taken away and no wags were paid to them. Three of them managed to escape, and four others were released on May 13, the youth movement "Alternativa" (Alternative) reports.
According to the organization's information, the number of employees, kept at the stone work factory located in the village of Mekegi of the Levashi District, included six Russian citizens and one native of Ukraine. They had been working at the factory for about two months.
Photos from the special operation conducted by law enforcement agents together with activists of the movement "Alternativa" were published on the movement's page on the social network "VKontakte". Besides, the Twitter page of Oleg Melnikov, the leader of the movement, presents a photo of the alleged owner of the factory.
The activists of the movement "Alternativa" arrived in Dagestan to find Vyacheslav Komarov, a resident of Moscow, who disappeared on May 1 and who managed to contact his father to inform him that he was forcibly taken away to Dagestan. This was reported by Oleg Melnikov. According to his story, in the republic, the activists met two persons who escaped from the factory located in the village of Mekegi a divorced man from the city of Saransk and an inmate of an orphan's home from Nizhny Novgorod.
According to Oleg Melnikov's story, at work, they were told that they had to work to repay their debts and that they would not left the factory till they repay their debts. "They were told that they had to pay for accommodation and for food. And the amount grew every month," the "Bolshoy Kavkaz" quotes Oleg Melnikov as saying.
For each new employee recruited in such a way, the factory owner paid "recruiters" 15,000 roubles. This was told by Vasily, one of the released men, at the "Dozhd" TV Channel. The name of the man was not disclosed.
Today, officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) have confirmed the information about the release of the factory workers and emphasized that the issue about initiating a criminal case against the factory owner is under consideration, the RIA "Novosti" reports.