Trafficked workers endured ‘slave-like’ conditions in Donegal, court told
By Chris McNulty
Seven people trafficked to Ireland from eastern Europe for work were forced to scour public bins in search of food and were treated like “slaves”.
Details of the squalid conditions faced by victims were outlined at a sentencing hearing at Letterkenny Circuit Court in Co Donegal of an Eastern European duo at the centre of a people trafficking operation.
Georgijs Poniza (37) and Armen Pogosyan (30), have each pleaded guilty to a total of 34 charges (17 each), including seven apiece of trafficking.
This is the first conviction of its kind in the Republic of Ireland for human trafficking based on labour exploitation.
Poniza and Pogosyan, each with an address at Assaroe Falls, Ballyshannon, will be sentenced next month by Judge John Aylmer after the complex case was outlined over the course of two days.
The accused men sat on either side of an interpreter in the dock, while some victims in the case were also aided by an interpreter in the body of the court.
Garda Detective Paddy Kelly told how the victims were initially recruited by deception.
The victims lived in a rural house in conditions described as being “sub-standard” with the accommodation not heated and there being no bedding.
During the period of offending, between December 2020 and October 2023, there was a total loss of earnings to the victims of approximately €120,000.
A male - who is also subject to criminal proceedings in his home country - promised them employment with a good salary, good housing and no bills. The court heard that the seven victims in the case were all susceptible to being trafficked due to their various circumstances at the time.
The accused duo entered into an arrangement where they would supply workers to two companies in south Donegal. There is no criminality suggested against the companies, who cooperated fully with the investigation.
The victims in the case cannot be identified with section 11 of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008 having been cited by counsel.
One of the victims said that he was treated worse than a workhorse, telling how they were not allowed to rest and would be dropped off on the main road and made to walk to their house, at a rural location, after a long night shift at work.’
“I felt that I had no rights,” he said, adding that he was regularly assaulted. “I felt humiliated,” the man said and drew a comparison to the collapse of the USSR, where people who attempted to flee were beaten and brought back to their location.
Another man recalled how he ran away one night at 4am and said: “I was so happy that I left them and their slavery”.
“They tortured us,” he said. “I was fed up with it. The right way would have been to fight back, but not everyone was able. They were too afraid.”
Another man said the conditions in Donegal were “like prison”. He said he made a handful of attempts to escape, but was caught each time and assaulted upon his return.
One of the victims remembered how he had to sleep on an inflatable mattress for months.
“I was deceived. I thought that this would have been a new beginning,” he said. “I felt like anything could happen, and no-one would ever find out. I did not feel safe there.”
The man said he was treated “like a worthless piece of shit”.
Victim impact statement
“I felt mugged by them,” he added in a victim impact statement. “The way that they treated people was like a slave trade. They were using people, using me, for their own advantage.”
A woman told how she was threatened and bullied, and how the pair controlled their victims at all times. At one stage, the accused men made her sign a “debt bond” and she paid €100 a week until a total of €2,100 was paid over.
A man was told that if he moved to Ireland, he would be “covered in chocolate” such was the lifestyle he would enjoy. He was promised that he would be paid between €50 and €70 per day, and he arrived in Ireland in March, 2021.
However, he arrived and had to sleep on a floor on a mattress and said that people were “like fish in a can” in that property.
He had to pay €100 a week in rent, despite being told that he would not have to pay rent.
One day, he reported having a sore tooth, and he said that Poniza was “angry” that he was unable to go to work.
Poniza was said to have threatened to kick all of his teeth out. “He started to talk to us like that when we questioned the wages,” the victim told gardaí.
He said the house they were living in was “very cold” and they were living far from the shops. He said they had to ask for permission “to do anything”.
One victim described very long working hours in “arduous” conditions and said that they saw “very little” of their pay.
Another person said they would often work 12-hour shifts over six days a week, and they would have to wait for hours to be collected after their shift. At times, they would have to sleep on the floor of a workplace.
They would be charged travel expenses, and money would be deducted for vehicle repairs by the accused. The court heard that they would even charge the trafficked people for rubbish collection, even if there would be no collection. Bank cards in the name of some of the victims were obtained and used by the accused men.
They were even deducted funds to cover the funeral expenses of another worker - despite the Department of Social Protection paying those costs,
The court heard that a complainant presented himself to Store Street Garda Station in Dublin in April 2022. He reported that he had been trafficked and subjected to labour exploitation. In all, seven complainants came forward to make statements to Gardaí.
Fraudulent documents
Pogosyan and Poniza have been in custody since their arrest in October 2023, when detectives swooped in and arrested them.
Significant documentary evidence, including passports, payslips, Revenue documents and fraudulent documents in victims’ names, was seized, as well as fuel cards and debit cards in the name of some victims.
Poniza was interviewed a total of 13 times by gardaí and was “disparaging” of the victims.
It was only at the 12th interview that he made “certain admissions”, while Pogosyan gave mainly “no comment” answers during the course of 12 interviews at a Garda Station. While the court was told that the men have “no contact” with each other in prison, gardaí said they were “unaware” of this.
Photos of the victims, as well as copies of various documents and IDs relating to them, were located on electronic devices which were seized from Poniza and Pogosyan.
Some victims had “no choice” but to sleep on mattresses on the floor as there were no beds. Some reported that they had to share a bed with another adult male.
Food was limited, with fridges said to have been “under-stocked” when detectives arrived. One of the complainants said that the food they received was “minimal” and “low quality”.
Often, they would have to search through public bins for something to eat and ask local shopkeepers if they could have food that was “destined for the bins”.
Rental bills were deducted from the salaries, which were completely controlled by Poniza and Pogosyan.
The court heard that the men withdrew €78,590 at banks and ATMs from the account of a company, and they also laundered over €125,000 by gambling in an arcade.
The passports of the victims were seized by the duo, who informed them that they were needed to manage tax affairs. No contracts were ever signed, and workers did not receive pay slips.
Each of the employees had a payslip provided, but these were given to the accused. This enabled them to control what money their victims would receive and allowed them to make deductions, while victims would be “fined” if they were found drinking alcohol in the properties.
Those who disobeyed orders were met with “severe punishment” and the duo were said to have had “no regard” for people who had existing health conditions.
One of the people said they were “treated like property, like animals”.
Poniza and Pogosyan would interact with gardaí in front of the victims, who perceived there to be a friendly relationship as a result.
The initial complaint told how he was promised “better wages and a better life” in Ireland, but when he arrived at a property in Rossnowlagh, there were no bedclothes in the bed.
On one occasion, when he brought up the issue of pay, he was taken to the bus station in Ballyshannon and told he could get the bus to the airport.
This man returned to his home country, aided by the embassy, but he returned on the promise that things would be “better”.
However, his passport was taken, and he felt “at the mercy” of the accused men. When he attempted to “escape” in March 2022, he was met by Poniza and Pogosyan when he got to Dublin Airport.
They returned him to Donegal, but he managed to get free a month later and lived on the streets in Dublin for a period before going to the authorities.
Another man said he received no money at all for six weeks, and subsequent to that he had no money left after he paid his bills. He said he felt as if he was treated like a “slave or an animal”.
