The managing director of Leisure Clothing admitted to the police that he showed the Employment and Training Corporation a copy of a contract which was in line with Maltese employment laws but different to that given to the workers, a court heard this afternoon.

Inspector Sylvana Briffa said Bin Han told the police during interrogations that the company first showed the workers a contract that was in line with Maltese laws but then gave them a contract in Vietnamese which was different as it was not in line with Maltese employment legislation, especially with regard to the salary.

She added that during the interrogations – one of many – he offered to regularise the company’s position with employment laws.

Inspector Briffa, stationed at the Vice Squad, was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Mr Han, 46, from San Ġwann and Jia Liu, 31, from Birżebbuġa, who are charged with human trafficking and the exploitation of Chinese and Vietnamese working for Leisure Clothing. They are pleading not guilty.  Today’s marathon sitting lasted almost six hours.

Inspector Briffa said the police began their investigations in August when they received a report via email from the Jesuit Refugee Services regarding alleged human trafficking of a number of Vietnamese workers.

They told police that the company was employing them for 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week and they were being paid €75 a month.

She said they also told police that they were threatened with deportation if they did not accept the “miserable” conditions. In the meantime, the police also received a report from the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations which had investigated the matter and referred it to the police for further investigations.

The inspector said the workers had been employed through a Vietnamese recruitment agency, Vihatico, which also told them how the company based in Bulebel would withhold their wages and give them some pocket money every two months. This, they told police, was a guarantee that they would not flee Malta.

The inspector said the workers also complained about the living quarters which were small, crammed and dirty. They had a limit on the amount of toilet paper they used and their bed had no linen.

Magistrate Carol Peralta, who is hearing the case, informed the prosecution and defence that the he will carry out an on-site inspection on Friday morning to see for himself the miserable living conditions these workers were claiming.

Inspector Briffa also stated that Mr Han admitted to the police that the company’s bank accounts were in the red and it barely had money to operate from one month to the next. To this end, the company would use the money it was withholding from workers to keep the company going.

Mr Liu told police that even part of his salary was being withheld by the company but insisted that he had nothing to do with the company’s daily operations and neither with workers’ employment conditions.

Kong Hu Yan also took the witness stand during today’s sitting. He works as an HR manager with a Chinese consultancy agency which sends workers to work for Leisure Clothing. 

His role is to recruit the skilled workers to send them abroad. He said his firm collaborated closely with Vihatico, the Vietnamese recruitment agency which was also recruiting for Leisure Clothing.

It emerged during his testimony that the contract Vietnamese workers signed was different from the one that they had passed on to the company. “I never saw this contract before,” he said.

Asked by the court whether anyone of the people he recruited ever complained to him about the working conditions they found in Malta which were not what they were promised, Mr Kong said no one had complained.

“Some even finished contract and decided to come back to Malta because it is better than working in China,” he added.

If they are interested, they pay the agency €1,000 as a fee for the job. The factory covers their air fares. My company does not charge the Vietnamese workers as these are recruited through Vihatico. We charge the agency $600 per person to cover expenses such as visa applications, inland travel etc.

He exhibited photographs he printed during his five day visit to Malta of people he interviewed in November 2013 and who came to work in Malta.

He said he did not know whether the conditions of employment offered to the Vietnamese were in line with Maltese employment laws.