The former head of a French NGO that worked with illegal immigrants has been sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of trafficking in human beings by a Paris court.
Ronald D., the former head of the NGO Vies de Paris, was sentenced by the Paris Criminal Court to two years in prison with one year suspended after being found guilty of exploiting illegal immigrants he had promised to help.
The 54-year-old, a French citizen originally from Haiti, was accused of offering illegal immigrants a place to live in exchange for work, often paying the migrants very little and forcing the victims, 51 in total, to work long hours, the newspaper Liberation reports.
“It was hard work. I was losing track of day and night. I would arrive early in the morning and leave late at night. The offices were in the basement, so I didn’t know what time of day we were,” one of the victims told the newspaper, which exposed the activities of Ronald D. earlier this year.
According to the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants, the illegals were terrorised by Ronald D., who referred to himself as “Mr President” or “his majesty” and some women even spoke of sexual harassment and even rape.
Two others connected to Vies de Paris were also part of the case with one of them found to be an accomplice to Ronald D. and was sentenced to a suspended sentence of eight months, while the other accused was released. The NGO itself was also dissolved.
Marilyne Poulain, a member of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) trade union and civil party in the case, welcomed the court’s verdict saying, “Legally, this is a victory, because the court has recognized the definition of human trafficking in this case. In terms of law, compared to what we have known before, it is an evolution.”
Maxime Cessieux, the lawyer representing the victims, added, “Until now, trafficking has been confined to pimping or theft networks. From now on, we see that the judiciary is interested in working conditions from this angle. This time, the court recognized that our victims had not dreamed and that we had taken advantage of their status as undocumented to demand services from them.”
The case is not the first time NGOs working with migrants have been accused of exploiting those they claim to help, with many of the cases in recent years involving sexual exploitation or inappropriate sexual relationships between NGO workers and migrants.