Slaves are brought to Dagestan from Moscow

Seven people were freed from labor slavery in Dagestan by civil activists together with the police. A PublicPost reporter participated in the rescue operation and found out that human trafficking is an established business.

Lured to the Anzhi match

Dmitry Ivanov (name changed at his request) ran away from his owner on the evening of May 12. He called a friend in Moscow, and he found the contacts of Oleg Melnikov, the leader of the Alternative movement, on the Internet. Oleg, together with volunteers from Makhachkala, found and took away Dima late at night, wandering along the mountain roads.

How did 20-year-old Dima from the Nizhny Novgorod region end up in Dagestan? “I was in Moscow myself, I came there to look for work. I was walking near the Komsomolskaya metro station, a man who looked Caucasian came up to me and began asking me various questions,” Dima said. “He asked if I knew about the club.” Anzhi", do I want to go to their game at the stadium, do I want to see the warm sea, etc. All this, of course, was of little interest to me. But that guy offered me a good job: he said that they would provide housing and food, that this work on stone processing, but you can earn at least 30 thousand rubles.”

Dima agreed to the tempting job, but still left his documents in Moscow with a friend - just in case, he says. According to him, he and this man went to the Teply Stan metro station - buses to Makhachkala leave not far from this metro station. On the bus, Dima met two more people going to Dagestan for good work: one of them was an Uzbek, the other was Russian.

“Two days later, namely March 26, we were in Makhachkala, we arrived at the Pyramid bus station,” said Dima. “Some men approached us on the bus and told us to go with them. In their cars they They took us from Makhachkala to some suburban village. They pulled us out of the cars. In the end, there were six of us who had come to work from Moscow: three Russians, three Uzbeks. Some men began to approach us and examined us. became friends, one of the examiners took me in. This man said about me that “he wouldn’t take the young man.” But my friend refused to go without me. As a result, the man took the two of us and another Uzbek into his car. We ask where we are going. He says that he paid 15 thousand rubles for each of us, and we must work this money back for him.”

According to Dima, this man named Magomed-shapi brought them to some mountainous area - he only remembered that they were located near the village of Mekegi.

“We were told that we would work in good factories, and these factories in the end turned out to be - I don’t know how to say correctly - outdoor production,” said Dima. “They also showed us the housing: this is a small room, where there is a huge wooden ottoman mattresses were piled up. On the same mattresses is the table at which we dined.”

They soldered them so they wouldn't run away

For the first three days, he seemed pleased with the work, says Dima: “Magomed-shapi talked to us normally, showed us the work, introduced us to other workers - there were four of them: two Uzbeks, one Ukrainian, one Russian. We were reassured that those 15 We will quickly work off thousands. But for some reason our debt to the owner was growing. We were supposed to be paid according to the piecework system - for a square meter of stone they would give 50 rubles, said Magomed-shapi. It seems like you sawed the stone, you think that, for example, you worked for it. a thousand rubles, and in the workers’ register, which was kept by Magomedali, this is the owner’s brother, it is written that we still owe a thousand rubles from above.”

According to Dima, they all worked from eight in the morning until nine in the evening, and were allowed to rest only during lunch: “Even though they told us in Moscow that they would feed us for free, it turned out that we had to pay for food too, and they didn’t show us any receipts.” They also gave us clothes for work, and said that they would deduct our wages for them. If we were indignant, Magomed-shapi would come at us, shouting that he bought us, that no one needed us, that the police and the prosecutor’s office were his people. they are working. Yes, we had the opportunity to escape, but only at night. But where would we go? It’s around the mountains, it’s an unfamiliar area, you’re afraid to go to the police. So Volodya, the grandfather who worked with us, wanted to leave. scruff of the neck, swore at him and pushed him back to the machine.”

Sergei Nikolaev also ran away with Dima that evening. “Actually, everyone wanted to run away,” says Sergei. “Nobody liked the conditions. It turned out that you were working for free. Others didn’t run away with us, because everyone was always drunk. In the evening the owner brought alcohol, they diluted it and drank it. Everything was put off. "tomorrow". And they were very afraid to run away. We were all often reminded that we were bought, that it was useless to run away. And those who worked in other workshops said that they returned some of us and beat us. Sergei said that he himself is from Mordovia, came to work in Moscow, and was persuaded to go to Dagestan at the station: “On the Square of Three Stations, one man came up to me and asked if I was looking for work. I said that I was a woodcarver He replies that such specialists are needed in Dagestan. He said about salary, housing, food - everything would be fine, because I didn’t know that I would end up working in stone processing.”

Dima and some of those who worked with him had telephones. But they were afraid to contact the police. Of course, they could call relatives and friends. But Sergei says that he often called his 80-year-old mother through his comrades’ phones, but did not complain, he was afraid that her heart would be bad: “On the day I ran away, Magomed-shapi found my mother’s number from Andrey, with whom we worked together, called her, shouting that she would return me home in a zinc coffin if I didn’t return to the stone processing. Then my mother became ill, it turns out they called the doctors for her.”

Well-established business on slaves

Since September last year in Dagestan, the Alternative movement and local volunteers have freed about 50 people from slavery, said Oleg Melnikov: “Almost all these people got to Dagestan the same way - people approached them at bus stops and offered them good jobs. Those who didn’t want to go were given drugs and sleeping pills added to their food. So they ended up in Dagestan.”

According to Melnikov, several participants work in a criminal connection: “The person who finds people in Moscow and brings them to the bus receives at least a thousand rubles for each. The bus driver is aware of everything, and he also gets a piece of it. At checkpoints it is the drivers who negotiate with the inspectors. Well, you understand how they negotiate - they give a bribe. Already in Makhachkala, these people, roughly speaking, are bought up by those who need cheap labor. Some are taken to the brick factory, others to the mountains. stone processing. 15 thousand rubles, as we found out in conversations with those released, is the standard rate for a man, they pay more - about 150 thousand rubles.”

The liberated people lived in such conditions. Photo: Zakir Magomedov/PublicPost

There is no discrimination in the fact that girls are more expensive: girls are sold into sexual slavery and they pay off faster, Melnikov said: “During our work in Dagestan, we freed five girls. They were kept in saunas, that is, in brothels. You can earn money faster through sexual services, as it turned out. Now the Department for Combating Organized Crime (OBOP) of the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs is investigating the cases of those five girls.”

During the conversation, Melnikov strongly emphasizes that Dagestan is not the most problematic region in Russia in terms of the use of slave labor: “In Moscow, the situation is much worse. For example, I participated in the liberation of people who were held in slavery for ten years in a grocery store. This was in the Moscow district of Golyanovo. There was a lot of noise around this case, almost all the media wrote about it. But what happened in the end? The case was opened, it was closed, and public organizations were suing those who wanted to cover up the owners who were holding these people. In general, things are going sluggishly. And in Dagestan, we are helped not only by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and officials, but also by ordinary people who call and report that slaves are being held in a certain place, these same volunteers go to rescue people at any time of the day.”

Dagestan volunteers help those released with housing. For example, Madina Ismailova, one of the volunteers, often provided shelter and food. “My son helps Oleg, travels with him, I’m trying to find help in some other way,” Ismailova told me. “It’s a great shame for Dagestan that they are brazenly using people who haven’t seen a good life anyway.”

Third escapee

Volunteers are constantly in touch with the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs - in case of problems, Oleg Melnikov calls Deputy Minister Magomed Ismailov on his mobile phone, and this helps. For example, when the volunteers and the rescued Dima were detained and the traffic police did not want to let go. Therefore, on May 13, the volunteers, together with Dima, came straight to the ministry. Minister Abdurashid Magomedov, when his deputy reported to him about the escapees, ordered his subordinates to look into everything.

To begin with, the police tried to organize an ambush. Dima’s owner, Magomed-shapi, called him either with requests or with threats, so Dima, at the request of the police, told him that he would be waiting for him at the Pyramid bus station - Magomed-shapi promised to bring Dima’s salary.

Magomed-shapi kept calling Dima, saying he’ll be there soon. The operatives and I stood about twenty meters from Dima and watched. A few minutes later, Magomed-shapi called Dima and said that he knew about the raid, that either an acquaintance or a relative from the prosecutor’s office told him about it.

These booths are workers' housing. Photo: Zakir Magomedov/PublicPost

It was getting late in the evening, so the operatives decided to go to the place of work of the escapees the next day - especially since the fugitives could not say exactly where they were.

On the evening of May 13, another person who was forcibly detained, Andrei, escaped from the stone processing plant. He decided to escape when Dima told him on the phone that volunteers had taken him in. He told us that he escaped and hitchhiked to Makhachkala (volunteers picked him up in the city). He got into stone processing in almost the same way as Dima and Sergei: in Moscow, on the Square of Three Stations, a man approached him - Andrei doesn’t remember his name, but claims that he was Russian: “He and I just We talked about this and that. Then we went to a cafe. Well, we drank and started talking. He asked me about my work. I told him that I am a finishing worker. He says that there is work for me in Dagestan, I can go right now. I heard about brick factories, but I didn’t think that they would take me there, I thought that the conditions were good: food there, housing was free, and the salary seemed to be high. In general, I woke up already on a bus. I was approaching Makhachkala. Well, what else can I tell you? They bought me for 15 thousand rubles, as Magomed-shapi told me. He probably took away my passport. Probably, I could earn good money in stone processing, if everything was honest.”

Criminal cases related to slave labor - "hangings"

The next day, as agreed, together with the OBOP employees we went to the village of Mekegi, Levashinsky district of Dagestan - not far from this village is the place from which Dima, Sergei and Andrey fled.

It will be difficult to punish their owner to the fullest extent of the law, senior detective Magomed-Rashad Asadulaev reassured us before leaving: “Last year, I myself personally freed about ten people who were held in slavery. These people are used for hard physical work not only in brick factories or stone processing, they also work on the farm: they dig up vegetable gardens, look after the livestock. Do you know why it’s difficult because those who are released go home and then it’s difficult to work - most of them don’t. live at the specified address, and they will never come back to Dagestan for investigative measures - they are intimidated by the police, and some owners escape from the country altogether. For example, I freed one from 14 years of captivity in the Khasavyurt region. man. And the one who held him fled to the United Arab Emirates. How to punish him now? Requests to Interpol, etc. - this case will drag on for years."

Workers had to cut out even rectangles from this mountain stone. Photo: Zakir Magomedov/PublicPost

Another OBOP employee, who asked not to give his name, said that usually after the release of a statement, few people want to write, and the police do not insist on this: “It’s just that the police officers understand that a criminal case based on such a statement is 99% dead.” For example, the criminal case against those girls who were released from the saunas is just standing there - we can’t find these girls, they went to their home, and the trace has disappeared. And in this case they are now asking us from Moscow. What do we need now? do?"

The village of Mekegi is located almost an hour and a half drive from Makhachkala. There are solid mountains all around, it’s almost impossible for a non-local to navigate here. Near the road along the outskirts of the village, there are those same open-air stone-processing workshops. At the sight of the police, some people—as it later turned out, workers—ran away towards the mountains, others hid.

We drove up with the operatives to the place where the three escapees were working: six people were working near a dirty machine, a young guy was sitting next to him with a notebook in his hands - then they found out that it was Magomedali, the owner’s brother. It was clear that he was confused. When asked where Magomed-shapi is, he says that he is in Makhachkala on business. It is impossible to reach him by phone.

Those who worked near the machine tell approximately the same stories as those who escaped. When the police ask if anyone was forcibly restraining them, some do not answer, remain silent, and some mutter something inaudibly. But everyone clearly says that they want to go home. Only two Uzbeks standing near Magomedali claim that they have excellent living conditions and good work. The work looks very hard. Stone processing points stretched for ten kilometers along the road.

People are coming to the point surrounded by police. Among them is, as he himself introduced himself, a deputy of the district assembly. Introducing himself as Magomed, he claims that everything here is according to the law, that these people “have the best jobs and excellent living conditions.” Together with him we went to look at the workers' housing - it was a cramped, dirty booth, the smell in the room was stale, there was no hygiene. “Well, it’s a little better at home,” the deputy smiles.

The head of the village of Mekegi, Magomedzagid Abdurashidov, who also arrived, claims that people work here illegally: “There are a lot of Uzbeks and Tajiks here. How they get here is a big question that our migration service does not answer, a question that the local one cannot answer.” police. I can’t influence the villagers who are involved in this business in any way. They answer that they don’t know how to earn money in any other way.”

OBOP employees are visiting other points. They ask people if they want to leave. Uzbeks and Tajiks are hiding in booths, they don’t understand the questions - almost none of them speak Russian.

Together with four people who worked at Magomed-shapi, we went to the Levashinsky district police department. The police brought Magomedali there. The Uzbek workers did not want to go anywhere.

"Decent" pay...

At the department, the police took the released people into different offices and took testimonies and statements from them. The head of the department, Abdula Omarov, went into the office where the policeman was recording Dima’s testimony and where the leader of “Alternative” Melnikov and I were sitting. “You had a phone, why didn’t you call the police? Why didn’t you run to the village for help?” — the boss addressed Dima in a raised voice. He tried to answer something, but Omarov pressed. “Well, we went to the police, we’re leaving our statements,” Melnikov added. The boss, changing his tone, assures that the police will do everything possible to punish the perpetrators.

One of those released. Photo: Zakir Magomedov/PublicPost

While the police were busy with statements, Melnikov, I and a local journalist went out for about twenty minutes to eat. And when they returned, they discovered that the same Magomed-shapi had arrived at the department. It turns out that his real name is Magomed-said Magomedov, but for some reason people call him Magomed-shapi. He denied everything, said that for some reason they wanted to set him up, but for what, he didn’t know: “Nobody was holding anyone by force. They’re all lying. Nobody bought them, they don’t have to work off any debts. I found them at the bus stop Purely by chance I went there two or three times on business and found all the workers.”

When asked how much he owed the workers, Magomed-shapi replied: “Everything is written in the notebook.” In the notebook that his brother Magomedali had, it was written that almost all the workers owed the owner 8 thousand rubles. “These are incorrect calculations, there is another notebook,” Magomed-shapi pulled out a crumpled notebook from his pocket. The police chief demanded that he quickly pay the workers. The procedure for calculating the salary lasted more than half an hour. It turned out that Magomed-shapi’s employees owed up to five thousand rubles each. “They didn’t do a good job,” he said, shrugging.

No complaints

We returned to Makhachkala late in the evening. On the way, Dima said that while we had lunch, the police chief Omarov took him to his office: “He said that they were used to denigrate the police, Dagestan. He demanded that I correspond to the statement that I have no complaints about Magomed Swapi. This Magomed-Shapi himself was freely approaching the department to other freed and threatened them, he said that they would not write anything on him. "

But the release of Magomed-Svi still wrote statements. According to these statements to the police, as Oleg Melnikov said, public organizations from Moscow will continue to work, in particular, “civil assistance”.

As for the liberated, they will be sent home just the other day. Perhaps some of them will again fall into difficult circumstances - almost everyone has a difficult past. Dima, for example, an orphan, and Vasily and Volodya - generally with a prison past. Some of them volunteers in Moscow have already found work.

“Home, in Nizhny Novgorod, I won’t return. I will stay in Moscow, I will find a job. I don’t want life to go downhill,” Dima said, saying goodbye.

A little later, one of the operatives called me, who was with us in the Levashinsky district. He said that the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs plans with the volunteers of the raids for brick factories, and a special investigation will conduct at those points in stone processing.

Photo: Zakir Magomedov/PublicPost