Four arrested for recruiting illegal immigrants in churches to exploit them as home delivery workers: "They charged 70 cents per package"

They recruited undocumented immigrants through contacts between church followers, social networks or instant messaging applications to have them deliver packages to their homes in exchange for a small part of the money they charged for each delivery. The workers, who were promised employment contracts and help to regularize their situation in Spain, ended up traveling long distances on foot, pushing carts loaded with merchandise for days of up to 14 hours, six days a week. All this for just "70 cents per package delivered", according to the National Police, which has arrested four people, three men and one woman, for their alleged participation in this labor exploitation plot discovered in Fuenlabrada.

According to the police investigation, the organization had established a system to take charge of the home delivery of packages from logistics centers using immigrants in an irregular situation. A circumstance that, according to the researchers, left them in a position of special vulnerability when it came to demanding decent working conditions.

The first contact occurred through social networks, messaging applications or through "word of mouth among parishioners" of the churches, according to the police note. Those interested in the offers had to call the members of the organization, who would conduct a job interview. During these conversations they offered them the possibility of joining parcel delivery and made "false promises of contracts, as well as help to regularize their situation in our country."

Once they accepted the job, those responsible agreed with them on a meeting place to which they went in vans. According to the investigations, they picked them up and transported them to open fields where they had organized the distribution of the merchandise. There they were given large carts loaded with packages that they had to distribute on foot. Workers had to return "up to two times to the meeting point to recharge the cars" and continue with deliveries.

Behind this procedure, always according to the police version, there was a distribution of functions among the members of the organization. One of them, who did have authorization to access the distribution centers, collected the packages and loaded them into the vans at the doors of the facilities. Other members of the scheme, who lacked this accreditation, drove the vehicles to the points where the merchandise was finally distributed among the delivery people.

The remuneration depended on the number of deliveries made: "70 cents per package delivered." However, that amount represented only a part of the money generated by the work. The Police assure that those responsible for the organization provided the immigrants with their own access codes to the delivery applications, so that it was the ringleaders "who received the full money" through the courier services, while the workers received only a small part.

The Police also assure that those responsible for the plot went so far as to "hire minors" and that they even offered positions as van drivers to people who lacked the corresponding driving license. Researchers warn of the risk to road safety that this practice could pose.