Trial Begins for Strawberry Farm Workers Shooting

The trial of the owner of a strawberry farm in Nea Manolada in Peloponnese began on Friday, June 6, along with his three foremen accused of shooting at a group of Bangladeshi migrant workers. The shooting occurred on April 2013, when the foremen opened fire on about 120 laborers, who demanded their unpaid wages. Twenty eight of them were injured and recovered after treatment. The initial charges on attempted murder were softened to grievous bodily harm and the four Greek men have been charged with labor trafficking and breaches of employment law. It is the first time that Greece will hold a trial for the mass trafficking of workers. More than a year after the incident the laborers are still living under poor conditions in the strawberry fields of southern Greece and are still waiting to get paid. “The case has to do with major abuse of human rights within a wider framework, which has been covered up for years by a veil of silence,” said the Greek Council for Refugees, which has helped raise money for the migrants to attend the trial that will take place in Patra. Only the 28 undocumented migrants who were treated in the hospital have been given temporary protection against deportation, while the remaining laborers have filed a separate suit against the Greek owner and three foremen.

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