Rome, Italy, Italy
Italian authorities arrested three men who ran a circus in which a Bulgarian family was lured into debt peonage through an intermediary. Though the family was promised nearly $750 USD per week, they received less than $200 for the family of four. The family is originally from Bulgaria and were brought in to Italy to serve in the circus. The family was subject to 15-20 workdays in which a 19-yr-old woman was forced to swim in extremely cold water with pirahnas and her 16-yr-old sister was in an act where she was covered with snakes and spiders. Both girls received wounds and medical issues from their treatment. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "ROME — Police have arrested three Italians and shut down their circus on allegations that they forced Bulgarian teenage sisters to perform in tanks full of piranhas and snakes, news reports said Wednesday. Italian dailies Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica said a 19-year-old woman was forced to swim in a tank filled with freezing water to keep the piranhas lethargic, while her 16-year-old sister was covered with snakes and tarantulas. The reports said that three suspects run a circus near Naples in southern Italy. Police acted on a tip from a spectator and moved to arrest the three Sunday night, the reports said. La Repubblica said the three are accused of holding the Bulgarians in slavery, kidnapping and human trafficking. The sisters are part of a family that was employed in the circus. According to the reports, the family lived in a truck infested with cockroaches and was forced to work 15-20 hours a day for $155 a week instead of the agreed $747. The difference was going to a Bulgarian intermediary, the reports said. A spectator tipped off the police after seeing the show, in which the 19-year-old girl tried to escape from the piranha tank "trembling with terror" as her head was held down by Ingrassia. Her 16-year-old sister was bitten by snakes that she was forced to drape on her body, and she had injuries to her stomach where the snakes had wound themselves too tightly around her. The circus owners had rubbed ointment on snake bites on her legs but had refused to take her to a doctor. Police said the Bulgarian family had lived in the back of a cockroach-infested lorry used for animal transport. The only meat they had been given since January consisted of leftovers from the circus owners' Easter lunch last weekend. Reports said the older girl had a tumor on her ear for which she had twice been operated in Bulgaria. Doctors had told her never to get water in her ears, especially cold water. However the water tank in which she was forced to swim with eight piranhas was kept at a temperature just above freezing in order to make the piranhas lethargic. The Bulgarian family has now been taken to "safe premises," police said. Police said the raid on the circus followed an undercover operation in which plain clothes officers took their families with them as cover and filmed the show as evidence. They said the arrested men appeared surprised but made no attempt to justify their behavior. Corriere della Sera said the incident appeared to be "something out of the 19th century" but showed that slavery was still "very much a reality" in modern Italy. La Stampa said the treatment of the Bulgarians was "unfortunately not an isolated incident" of illegal immigrant labor, with many East European women brought to Italy as street prostitutes."