In this case of forced labor in Germany, a Moldovan couple was used to load trucks (with food) over the period of 4 months and 60% of their wages (moonlighting) were withheld by the perpetrator.

The applicant, who was born in 1991, is appealing in preliminary legal protection proceedings against the rejection of her application for the extension of a residence permit pursuant to Section 25 (4a) sentence 3 of the Residence Act. The applicant is a Nigerian national. According to her own statements, she had been living in Libya since 2008, where she worked as a cleaning lady in a private household. In May 2011, she fled to Italy. There she was last in possession of a residence permit valid until until Jan. 29, 2016 ("PERMESSO DI SOGGIORNO") for the purpose of employment ("TIPO DI PERMESSO: LAV SUBORDINATO"). According to her own statements, she entered the Federal Republic of Germany in March 2015 in order to work there as a prostitute.

Veronika is a Ukrainian undergraduate student in political sciences, with a very active profile on Instagram and Facebook, whose living conditions became difficult since the beginning of the war. She has saved some money for her own future but she thinks that there is no future for her in the country. Her parents receive a poor pension which isn’t enough for their mothly expenses. Bohdan is a 26 year old Ukrainian male, neighbor and friend of Veronika who was working in a local restaurant before the war. Currently he is unemployed and he tries to find some easy money without any success. Marko, a 28 year old Ukrainian, friend of Bohdan and follower of Veronica on Instagram and Facebook, lives in Kievo and owns a famous bar-restaurant. Marko is a member of a local criminal network, with transnational links and activities, that is involved in trafficking of Ukrainian females to Southeast Europe for sexual labouring. At last, Kostas is a 30 year old Greek male who lives in Athens and co-owner of some live strip show clubs. He is a member of a local criminal network, with transnational links and activities, that is also involved in trafficking of females coming from post-Soviet states to Greece for sexual labouring in local show clubs. His network has links with Marko’s network while he has personal contact with Marko through WhatsApp and Signal. Since Marko knows through Bohdan the situation of both Bohdan and Veronika, the war in Ukraine is a chance for him and his network to send Veronika to Southeast Europe exploiting the refugee routes exiting the country. After discussing Veronika’s case with Kostas, Marko approaches Bohdan and asks to bring him in contact with Veronika after convincing her about the proposal. He explains to him that he has some friends in Greece that could offer her an opportunity to find a work in the tourism sector and save some money until the end of the war. Due to her appearance, it will be easy for her to be hired at a well-paid job while at the beginning his Greek friends will offer her accommodation in an apartment with some other Ukrainian females. Veronika needs to pay 2000 US Dollars to an account in Western Union while Bohdan will receive a password in order to receive an amount of 300 US Dollars through Western Union too. Bohdan considers it is a chance to help Veronika and himself, as he will earn some money if he manages to convince her. He starts speaking to Veronika who understands this is the only way to escape from her misery. Nevertheless, she realises the risks of such a decision as Marko is an unknown person. A vehicle driven from one of the gang members with Veronika as passenger reaches the borders of Ukraine with Romania, where Veronika continues on foot together with other refugees to the Romanian side. A brief check from Romanian border officers takes only a few minutes and then a Romanian male named Alexandru receives Veronika. All communications take place via mobile phones through Telegram as Veronika had received the phone numbers through Bohdan. They reached Greece by car 2 days later and Kostas received Veronika and brought her to an apartment with 2 Ukrainian females also hosted there. Alexandru returned back to Romania. After a few days of excuses, Kostas announces to Veronika that it’s not easy to find a job for her and the only easy way to earn money is working in live strip show club that possesses with some friends. Kostas also explained to Veronika that in the case she were willing to offer and sex services to the club clients, she could save thousands of euros in a few months and be able to help her parents in Ukraine. Veronika has no other option and accepts the deal. Instead of doing a decent job in the tourism sector, Veronika is forced to work as a sex escort, since she is a lone refugee in an uknown country without having any money. Hellenic Police authorities, based on an anonymous information since 1 year ago from Veronika’s case and after a long lasting investigation and by using technical means, but also in cooperation with the police authorities of Romania, as well as EUROPOL and INTERPOL, are currently disrupting the above transnational criminal network. This cross-border police operation named “Ukrainian Invasion” coordinated by Hellenic Police authorities leads to the arrest of Kostas and some other members of his smuggling network while Alexandru and some more drivers are simultaneously arrested in Romania too. An international arrest warrant is now published through INTERPOL for Marko in Ukraine while Bohdan was not mentioned during the interrogation of Alexandru. Veronika was treated as victim of THB and was cared and assisted by Hellenic authorities and NGOs. She returned to Ukraine in a short period of time. All the arrested members in Greece are prosecuted and their sentence according to judicial sources is gonna be 10 years in jail.

Kuros is a Syrian 38 year old male who used to work in an agricultural company in his country. The civil war in Syria made him unemployed but he refused to leave his family and the last years he has working temporarily on whatever he could find. Since things have not changed at all, he has decided to leave at last Syria for a better future, while Europe is his final destination. Mehmet is a 34 year old Turkish male who is a member of migrant smuggling group active in Turkey. This criminal group is focused on Syria nationals who want to escape from their country and it has links with another criminal group in Greece which receives Syrian nationals for labor exploitation. Its modus operandi includes fake job adrvertisements on social media groups for easy deception and recruitment. Asterios is a 45 year old male in Athens who trades agricultural equipment. He has been the owner of a shop since 2000, as he received it from his father. Apart from this, Asterios has been dealing with migrants smuggling since 2015, as he has become a member of a criminal group which transfers mainly Syrian nationals from Turkey to Greece and then sends them to farmers/clients across Greece for labor exploitation. His criminal group has links with Mehmet’s criminal group. Dimitris is a 40 year old farmer in Pyrgos who cultivates acres of strawberries. He is a client of Asterios as he has received since 2015 10 Syrian nationals who have been working for him in Pyrgos receiving poor salary and living as slaves in one of his small safe houses across his land. Dimitris is currently in direct contact with Asterios as he immediately wants another “worker” for the annual harvest. Kuros checks some job advertisements on Facebook and Instagram after being informed by some friends in Syria. These advertisements speak about job opportunities in Greece in several sectors, including the agricultural. He sends a message on one of these on Instagram, whose user is Mehmet. The cost for the trip has to be covered from Kuros himself and is 3500 US Dollars which has to be loaded to an account in Western Union. Kuros has no other choice than giving all his savings for a better future in Greece. After loading the money he texts Mehmet about it and the journey starts. He enters Turkey and reaches Tsesme, and from there he passes by boat to Ikaria island. When he lands on Ikaria island, he contacts Emre, a Turkish male, a smuggler who is the link between Mehmet’s and Asterios’ smuggling groups on Telegram. Kuros receives from Emre on Telegram the ferry ticket which will bring him to Piraeus, where Asterios will receive him. Emre informs Asterios via Signal about the departure of Kuros from Ikaria island. After his arrival in Piraeus, Kuros is delivered from Asterios to Dimitris in Pyrgos. Dimitris announces to Kuros that he will work for him receiving a decent montly salary with some extras and brings him to his accommodation next to the farms. There he threatens him with a gun and tells him that from now on he is a slave and he has to work truly hard to earn his daily food and water, locking him inside the safe house with the other “workers”, without any access on mobile phone. Kuros realizes that his long journey has ended to a prison since he has been deceived but he has no other choice than work for Dimitris. His “colleagues” advise him not to do anything stupid as they are in the middle of nowhere with assistants of Dimitris monitoring them. They also tell him that even the local authorities are aware of the situation and they probably cooperate with Dimitris. Hellenic Police, based on an anonymous information since 1 year ago from Kuros’ case and after a long lasting investigation and by using technical means, without any cooperation with the local authorities in Pyrgos, as well as EUROPOL and INTERPOL, are currently disrupting the above transnational criminal network. This cross-border police operation named “Blood Strawberries” leads to the arrest of Dimitris, Asterios and some other members of the smuggling network while Emre is arrested by the local authorities in Ikaria island. All coerced workers released and assisted by Hellenic authorities and NGOs. An international arrest warrant is now published through INTERPOL for Mehmet in Turkey while actions have started for the withdrawal of the fake job advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. The criminal network manipulated the undergound banking system ‘Hawala’ and remittance companies to transfer the illicit proceeds. The “Blood Strawberries” is a forced labour case attracted wide publicity in national and international press. All the arrested members in Greece are prosecuted and their sentence according to judicial sources is gonna be 10 years in jail.

This case concerns the dissemination of child sexual abuse material through darknet forums by an organized criminal group as well as the sexual abuse of children by members of the group. The defendants in the case concerned were already a part of the online pedophile scene before they got together with several already prosecuted offenders to create private forums and chat rooms, including the Giftbox Exchange and Elysium. After registering to these platforms, the defenders were given increasing number of tasks to maintain the operations of the sides and accordingly, were promoted into leadership positions, if they didn’t already have such positions from the start. The purpose of the chat rooms and private forums were to faciliate a safe exchange environment of as many recent photos and videos displaying child secual exploitation between the members. Since the members were also active on other sites, the exchange led to the uncontrolled dissemination of such material on the internet. Four defendants were identified within the case, undertaking maintenance and operational responsibilities of the forum, initially being Giftbox Exchange. In the course of investigations, taskforce Argos of the Queensland Police Service was able to associate the forum with and Australian service provider, which led the defendants to notice the situation and shut down the chat servers. Later, another platform was created (Elysium) by the four defendants. In order to log in and have unlimited access to content, users had to register with a username and password. The obligation to post material for verification purposes was, contrary to the Giftbox Exchange (TGE), not introduced, which led to the registration of a large number of users within a short amount of time. At the time of the takedown of the platform (the night from 12 on the 13 June 2017), Elysium had 111,907 registered users. According to the analysis conducted, approximately 45% of seized videos analyzed were child sexual exploitation material that had not previously identified.

Starting from May 2008 until May 2011, the defendant, has advertised various job offers in different internet platforms searching for dancers in different clubs. Regardless of the fact that that the defendant was aware of the internal regulations of the PC club according to which the strippers were expected to perform the clients sexual services for a charge, he recruited from May 2008 until May 2011 at least 95 female persons who had been identified in course of pre-trial procedure to work at the above-mentioned club as strippers pursuant to the contracts which had been signed but in reality the latter were expected to engage in prostitution. The defendant knowingly targeted women who were in financial difficulties and were willing to earn quick money as soon as possible and lured them into thinking they will be earning high amounts of salaries. The defendant, being aware the work mentality at the PC Club (the initial club in which the victims were hired in) and the orders, which included among other things the performance of sexual services for money to the clients by the women working at the club, knowingly assured the women the legality and impeccable nature of the club work. Even though the dancers were assured that they will not be engaging in any sexual activities with guests coming to the clubs, they were coerced to do so in order to be able to receive their promised compensations and pay for their flight tickets.