Borealis, one of the largest players in European chemistry, is building a plastic factory in Kallo, East Flanders, near the port of Antwerp. The company wants to convert propane gas into propylene, a basic building block in the chemical sector that appears in car bumpers, packaging, syringes and vacuum cleaners.
“Victims of human trafficking were indeed employed at the yard”, labor prosecutor Bart Wens confirms to De Tijd. Several indicators point in that direction. The men – each of Filipino and Bengali descent – would have received a monthly wage of barely 650 euros to work six days out of seven.
In a response to Gazet van Antwerpen and De Tijd, Borealis says that these are not employees of Borealis itself, but employees of the contractor IREM-Ponticelli. Borealis emphasizes that it expects all of its partners “to conduct themselves in an ethical and compliant manner, as clearly stated in the Borealis Code of Business Conduct and to fully comply with all legal requirements, including labor laws.”