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What happened
Police arrested two Chinese men and a woman in Hanover. The trio had founded a firm to orchestrate their smuggling activities, according to criminal investigations. The three Chinese held in custody - aged 46, 38 and 35 - are thought to be the chief operators in the trafficking ring. For years, the traffickers are said to have smuggled more than 1,000 Chinese into Germany and to have exploited them in abusive working conditions. Chinese emigrants paid 10,000 euros ($14,000) for a valid visa and work contract as so-called specialty cooks. But upon arrival in Germany they were forced to surrender their passports, essentially putting them in "debt servitude," Frank Federau,spokesman for the Hanover State Office of Criminal Investigation said. The immigrants were made to work as chefs for up to 80 or 90 hours a week, at an hourly wage of 3 euros ($4.23). Their lack of German language skills made it difficult for the immigrants to complain. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4580456,00.html
Response and intervention
The synchronized raids made use of more than 1,300 police and customs officials in the four German states. According to officials the raids turned up a lot of evidence, mostly in the form of paperwork and computer data. A raid on 180 Chinese restaurants and apartments in the states of Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg and North-Rhine Westphalia uncovered evidence of the trafficking.