An international law enforcement operation coordinated by Europol and led by Dutch authorities identified more than 70 potential victims of labour exploitation and human trafficking after raiding twenty restaurant locations across five European countries on 18 September 2026, including two restaurants in Switzerland. The coordinated action, targeting a network of Indian restaurant chains accused of trafficking predominantly Indian nationals for forced labour, resulted in two arrests and uncovered an estimated minimum of four million euros in illegal profits.
According to Europol, which published details of the operation under the title “International investigation identifies over 70 potential victims exploited in Indian restaurants,” the action was led by the Netherlands and carried out with the support of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Europol itself provided coordination support and deployed a specialist in human trafficking to a coordination centre in Utrecht to assist investigators from the participating countries during the operation.
Raids were carried out simultaneously at twenty locations: eight in the Netherlands, seven in Germany, two in Luxembourg, two in Switzerland and one in Belgium. The Netherlands Labour Authority (Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie), which played a leading operational role, confirmed that two arrests were made in connection with the investigation and that the inspections were part of a broader inquiry into human trafficking and migrant smuggling linked to restaurant chains operating across multiple EU member states and Switzerland.
Investigators say the network specialised in recruiting workers — many of them trained as specialised Asian cuisine chefs — with promises of skilled kitchen employment, only to divert them after arrival into far less skilled and far more exploitative roles such as dishwashing, cleaning and general service work. According to details released by the investigating authorities, victims were made to work extraordinarily long hours, in some cases up to sixteen hours a day, or between sixty and eighty hours a week spread across six or seven working days, while being paid far below what they were owed or promised.
To keep workers compliant and prevent them from leaving their positions or reporting their treatment, the network allegedly relied on a range of coercive tactics. These reportedly included financial penalties imposed on workers who tried to resign before the end of an agreed period, sustained psychological pressure, threats of violence, and — in a method frequently documented in transnational labour-trafficking cases — pressure directed at victims’ families back in India, a tactic that makes it significantly harder for isolated workers abroad to resist exploitative conditions or seek help from authorities.
Investigators have linked the exploitation to three separate Indian restaurant chains operating across the participating countries. Authorities have not published the names of the restaurant chains or the individuals arrested, in keeping with standard practice during ongoing cross-border investigations, but confirmed that the financial scale of the operation was substantial: illegal profits generated through the scheme are estimated at a minimum of four million euros, a figure investigators describe as conservative pending further analysis of the network’s finances.
In Switzerland, two restaurant locations were inspected as part of the coordinated action, making the country one of five jurisdictions directly involved in the operational phase of the investigation alongside the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium. While Swiss authorities have not detailed the exact nature or outcome of the inspections carried out on Swiss territory, their inclusion in the Europol-coordinated action places Switzerland squarely within the geographic footprint of a trafficking network that investigators believe operated across at least five countries simultaneously — a pattern consistent with growing concern among European law enforcement agencies, including Swiss federal police, about the use of ostensibly legitimate restaurant businesses as fronts for organised labour exploitation.
Europol and the participating national authorities indicated that the investigation is continuing, with suspicion that similar exploitative practices may be occurring at additional restaurants operated by the same chains in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland. Investigators are now focused on tracing the financial flows generated by the scheme, a process expected to shed further light on how profits extracted from underpaid and coerced workers were moved and laundered across the network’s country of operation.
The case forms part of a wider European pattern flagged repeatedly by Europol and by Switzerland’s own federal police agency, fedpol, which has in recent annual reports highlighted labour exploitation — including in the hospitality and catering sector — as an increasingly significant component of human trafficking activity affecting the country, alongside more traditionally reported forms such as sexual exploitation. Switzerland’s participation in this operation reflects the cross-border character of modern labour-trafficking networks, which routinely move both victims and profits across national borders in ways that require coordinated, simultaneous action by multiple national authorities working under Europol’s coordination umbrella to be effectively disrupted.
No further public statements on the Swiss dimension of the case, including whether any Swiss-based individuals face investigation or prosecution, had been released by Swiss authorities at the time of reporting. The investigation, spanning financial crime, human trafficking and labour law violations, continues under the joint oversight of the participating national law enforcement and labour authorities, coordinated through Europol.
