When I found out that the participants of the conference Final NRM draft Advisory Group meeting would eat dinner in “Allegory” – one of the restaurants mentioned during the trial against Mirosław K. I had to choose between amazement, indignation and disgust.
Responsibility for human trafficking cannot be removed from us wherever we are.
The higher the degree of our consciousness is the more carefully we should consume and recommend.
A lot of attention was devoted to not using the services of victims of human trafficking in the sphere of sex business. Corporate Social Responsibility tries to warn business entities and consumers against the use of ” poisoned fruit” of forced labour.
It can be said about Poland that it does not abound in trials of human trafficking for forced labour. The more shocking for the aware of residents of Warsaw was information about the investigation in the case of trafficking in human beings, concerning a several or even dozens of well-known Warsaw restaurants. The investigation concerns a man who cheated, humiliated and abused many people, mainly from Ukraine. The case is so shocking that it got a TV investigation, report in a widely read journal and even a theatre performance with the significant title “Modern Slavery”. The indictment has been filed with the court, the trial is under way, but to be seen if there is enough evidence to convict the perpetrators. Nevertheless, people who know something about trafficking in human beings realize that granting the status of a potential victim of trafficking and then the victim, requires strong reasons.
LA STRADA FOUNDATION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS AND SLAVERY has supported victims from the very beginning. Already two years earlier, she tried unsuccessfully to interest the justice system in the operation of Mirosław K. When the Border Guard began the investigation, a dozen or so people sat in the Foundation’s headquarters and tried to shape the world without Mr. Mirek. Everyone needed a job. Because the Foundation assumed that the restaurants to which Mr. Mirek leased illegally his employees were not aware of the scale of use, she offered them help in the legal employment of each of these people. Of the seventeen respondents, one answered. And it wasn’t a “AleGloria” restaurant.
There was a problem with this restaurant. When the victims exchanged more restaurants, we showed them in photos on the Internet to make sure. They who claimed to have worked in ”AleGloria” did not recognize its beautiful entrance and interior. Because they had never seen it – they entered through the side entrance – from the kitchen.
I do not call for boycotting places that used the work of abused people and did not ask them about contracts, salary or health condition. However, I would like public morals include public apologies. And as for public money, those who spend it should be especially sensitive to ambiguities in the supply chain.
