we first met maxime
our name for him at the end of september
he's from a small town in western
ukraine and works in the restaurant
industry
but he wanted to earn more money so he
went online to find a job
in germany
i found a ukrainian job agency
they said the jobs were legal
they gave me papers so that i could
travel to germany
and work in a meat factory in the town
of weissenfels
for 9 euros 35 per hour
the kiev-based ukrainian job site
international work
organized the trip for him and other job
seekers
they took a minibus from ukraine to
their place of work in germany
accompanied by a supervisor as non-eu
citizens
it should not have been that easy for
them to enter germany
but maxime says the agency gave him
false papers
which stated that he was a student with
a vacation job
in reality he's never studied
the agency charged over 500 euros to
find him a job
when i said i wasn't a student and asked
why i was issued these papers
they said don't worry not your problem
dozens of ukrainians like maxime turned
up for work at a meat factory in saxony
and halt in 2020.
all of them supposedly students looking
for a vacation job
some have been offered very different
jobs before their journey
like marina which is not her real name
there were three jobs on offer a
supermarket job
one in candy and one in a bakery
but we ended up with a very different
one in a meat processing factory
the work was extremely difficult for
women and men
the women had to lift heavy crates of
meat and meat products
that weighed between 25 and 30 kilos
the work for the so-called students
started in mid-september
but lasted only five days the german
authorities quickly realized there was
something odd
and the ukrainians found out that the
police had searched their accommodation
when i came home i discovered that the
door had been broken
there was a new lock our translator had
written a note
saying that the police had raided our
apartment broken the lock and put on a
new one
this was a coordinated police operation
on the 23rd of september
across five german states 800 police
officers searched the apartments of
people working illegally
as well as the offices of job agencies
the authorities focused on agencies for
temporary jobs
suspected of bringing workers into
germany with false documents
public prosecutors also questioned the
young ukrainians
who were told they had to leave germany
and were banned from returning
for three years the prosecutors see them
as both perpetrators
and victims
illegal entry into germany and illegal
residents
are not crimes they're misdemeanors
if someone has never been in trouble
with the law
we will most likely drop the charges
against them
during their stay in germany maxim and
the others were officially employed by
the german agency
berkana and lent out to the meat factory
the company which did not want to speak
to us is currently under investigation
it faces major penalties if found guilty
this involves an actual crime which
means that the minimum penalty
is one year in jail for each separate
offense
we looked online for the ukrainian job
site international work
which organized the journey for maximum
and the others
it's still advertising jobs in the eu
but did not want to speak with us
many of the jobs with german work
certificates currently do not seem to be
feasible because of restrictions related
to the coronavirus
many young people in ukraine seek better
paid jobs abroad
and they too could become the victims of
criminal job agencies
paying a lot of money to get a job
getting into trouble with the german
authorities
and not earning anything maximum says
that he has learned a lesson
i would now check everything very
carefully i'd also turn to specialists
to find out information about the
journey
not like i did then we didn't know where
we were going or what we were doing
if you don't know where you're going you
not only risk being deported you could
end up in jail
in the end maxim and the others were in
one way fortunate
they couldn't afford their return
journey to ukraine so the city of
weisenfels paid it for them
but they had imagined their trip to
germany
would be very different