Judicial and human rights officials reported that the Belgian Public Prosecution opened an investigation into the working conditions of 55 Asians from the Philippines and Bangladesh in a construction site in the city's port, which may amount to "modern slavery."
The "Specialized Public Prosecution for Violations Committed in the Work Framework" was assigned to investigate the case, and indicated that it had identified "55 potential victims" who would be questioned.
According to the Bayoc Center, the association specialized in receiving victims of human trafficking, the exploitation of this number of people in one workplace is unprecedented in Belgium.
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Office in charge of the investigation said the men were welding and laying pipes "on a dock in the port of Antwerp", without naming the company in question.
According to several local media, they were working under the authority of a company specializing in industrial pipes, a sub-contractor working in the workshop of the chemical company "Borealis" in Beveren, near Antwerp.
The majority of these workers are from the Philippines, and their situation was reported 15 days ago through the Philippine Consulate in Antwerp, where a number of them complained about working conditions, according to the director of the Baiyoke Center, Klaus Vanhout.
"They were receiving between 2 and 4 euros an hour, about 600 euros a month. They were clearly in a very precarious situation," said Vanhout, who runs in Antwerp one of the three Belgian centers that receive these victims of modern slavery.
Vanhout pointed to a network that exploits these Asian workers and transports them to European countries with "work permits issued in Hungary and Poland."
He said that "some of them had previously worked in Germany, and that a group was preparing to go to Greece."
For his part, Minister of Justice Vincent van Keckenborn said - in a statement to the Belgian news agency - that "this file is only the visible part of the iceberg."
The minister referred to the global index of slavery issued annually by the non-governmental organization "Walk Free Foundation", which indicates that there are "23 thousand victims of exploitation or modern slavery" in Belgium.