UK's richest family on trial for human trafficking, Indian slave labor
2 Min Read
The allegations state that the family confiscated the servants' passports while paying them only $8 (£7) for 18-hour days and giving them little freedom to leave the house.
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Ajay Hinduja, left, arrives at court in Geneva in January. (AFP)
The UK's richest family, the Hinduja family, is currently on trial in Switzerland after being accused of exploitation and human trafficking amid allegations that they cared more for their dog than their Indian servants.
The family, worth an estimated £37 billion ($47 billion), owns a villa in Geneva’s wealthy neighborhood of Cologny. The allegations state that Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, their son Ajay, and his wife Namrata confiscated the servants' passports while paying them only $8 (£7) for 18-hour days and giving them little freedom to leave the house.
A financial settlement over charges of exploitation was arrived at last week, but they remain on trial for trafficking.
Yves Bertossa, one of Geneva’s most famous prosecutors, argued that the family spent $10,000 a year on their dog as opposed to the daily amount they were paying their servants.
The Hinduja family's lawyers argued that the staff was also receiving accommodation and food.
Read next: Less than 0.5% of human trafficking victims identified last year
Former servants testified in the case, describing the family as friendly people who treated their servants with dignity.
Bertossa is requesting prison terms alongside millions of dollars in compensation and legal fees.
Geneva has previously been the center for alleged mistreatment of servants by the world's wealthiest.
In 2008, Hannibal Gaddafi, son of former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, was arrested in his hotel after police received information that he and his wife had been beating their servants.
Just last year, four domestic workers from the Philippines launched a case against one of Geneva’s diplomatic missions to the United Nations, claiming they had not been paid for years.
