Report from Belarus:

AfD man made prisoners work on onion farm

Political prisoners in Belarus were apparently forced to work on an onion farm for little money (symbolic image).

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/VLADYSLAV SODEL)

Serious accusations against an AfD politician from Saxony: According to Belarusian media reports, Jörg Dornau, a member of the state parliament, is said to have abused political prisoners of the Lukashenko regime as cheap labor on his onion plantation in Belarus.

The media reports quote a prisoner who describes the harsh working conditions on the plantation called OOO Zybulka-Bel, which was founded in 2020. According to the report, there was breakfast at 7 a.m., but then no water or food until the end of the working day at 8 p.m. The workers were then taken to a camp. This is said to have been a dirty cellar where people were freezing.

Five euros for 13 hours sorting onions
While working on the plantation, they were monitored by a supervisor, who also decided whether or not to pay the prisoners from the nearby Lida prison on the border with Poland and Lithuania. One prisoner explained that he had received five euros for a 13-hour working day.

Hundreds of political prisoners still in custody
According to the US portal "Politico", the company OOO Zybulka-Bel was founded in Belarus in October 2020. At the time, hundreds of thousands of people across the country took to the streets for more democracy and against the regime of Putin-affiliated ruler Alexander Lukashenko. The protests were crushed and hundreds of people were imprisoned. According to the human rights organization Viasna, there are still more than 1,300 political prisoners in custody. 

According to the reports, Dornau has an agreement with a local center for the isolation of offenders in order to be able to use political prisoners for work on the onion plantation in which he is involved.

Witness claims to have seen Dornau in person
One witness reported that he had even seen Dornau in person once. "A tall, bald-headed man once came in a car with a German license plate and stopped by the accommodation where we were sorting onions together with hired workers."

The AfD politician has been a member of the Saxony state parliament since 2019. He has already been criticized several times for his business activities in Belarus. Dornau even had to pay a fine of more than 20,000 euros because he had concealed his involvement in the onion farm from the Saxon state parliament.

Dornau himself has yet to comment on the allegations.