Photo credit: RJR News
Four members of the Hinduja family, the wealthiest> family in the UK, are on trial in a Geneva Criminal Court. They are accused of exploitation and human trafficking.
The four members of the family, worth an estimated $47bn, are allegedly spending more money caring for their dog than their servants.
The charges against the family, which owns a villa in Cologny, all relate to importing servants from India to look after their children and the household. Cologny is a wealthy neighborhood of Geneva, Switzerland.
Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, along with their son Ajay and his wife Namrata, allegedly confiscated staff passports, paid them as little as $8 for 18-hour days and allowed them little freedom to leave the house.
A financial settlement on exploitation was reached last week. However, the Hinduja remain on trial for trafficking, which is a serious criminal offence in Switzerland. They have denied the charges.
Yves Bertossa, one of Geneva’s famous prosecutors, compared the almost $10,000 a year the family claimed they had spent on their dog with the daily amount they were allegedly paying their servants.
The lawyers representing the Hindujas did not directly deny the allegations of low wages. However, they said things must be placed in context. They noted that the staff were also being accommodated and fed. They also disputed the charge of long hours by arguing that watching a film with the Hinduja children could not be classed as work.
Some former servants also testified. They described the Hindujas as a friendly family who treated their servants with dignity.
However, the allegations that servants’ passports were seized and that they could not leave the house without permission are grave because they could be judged as human trafficking.
