Needle House: how to make millions on tailors from Vietnam and India

The Moscow region police regularly "covers" underground sewing workshops with illegal foreigners. Another raid revealed a large-scale clothing production in the village of Koleryolki in the Orekhovo-Zuyevsky district. Violators are promised to be deported to their homeland, a Vietnamese citizen who organized an illegal business was brought to criminal responsibility, but the Russian beneficiaries escaped with a slight fright. Izvestia found several places in the Moscow region where workshops closed by the police with Vietnamese are being revived like a mythical Phoenix bird. How illegal garment factories are organized is in our investigation.

Three times in one funnel

A workshop with illegal clothing production, identified by police officers near Moscow at the end of March, was located in the village of Koleryolki. In one of the non-residential premises, security forces found a whole squad of tailors from Vietnam.

"Police officers have brought to administrative responsibility for violations of migration laws 12 natives of one of the countries of Southeast Asia, who illegally worked in a sewing workshop for the production of knitwear located in the village of Kolerelk near Moscow and, - said the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Moscow region Tatiana Petrova. Most of the foreigners were in Russia illegally — protocols were drawn up under Article 18.10 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, nine of them were also involved under Article 18.8 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. Violators were fined and administratively deported from the country.

"The employer has been brought to administrative responsibility for the illegal employment of foreign citizens under Part 4 of Article 18.15 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. Currently, the workshop's activities have been suspended," the police assured.

Meanwhile, this is not the first Necklace raid. Previously, the activities of foreign seamstresses were stopped here twice — in March and April 2023 (14 Vietnamese citizens were detained) and in September 2022 (13 foreigners were detained).

The administration of the Orekhovo-Zuyevsky municipality only confirmed to Izvestia that a criminal case had been initiated under the article on organizing illegal migration after the last raid. Regarding editorial questions regarding the prosecution of business beneficiaries, the administration recommended contacting the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Orekhovo-Zuyevsky city district.

Cottages behind a high fence

Judging by the addresses of recent police raids, a significant proportion of the "dormitory factories" for people from Southeast Asia are located in the Ramenskoye district of the Moscow region. Izvestia sent a request to the city education administration to clarify the situation, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

As a rule, production is located in suburban non-profit partnerships, which makes it much more difficult to identify them.

— The main rule is to place workshops in houses near busy highways, where it's noisy, where neighbors definitely won't complain, or on the outskirts, away from prying eyes. This business is very vulnerable due to complaints from local residents," explained a law enforcement source.

Another place of labor placement often used by the "workshop workers" is warehouses.

— The volumes are often huge, the material is delivered several times a week. Sometimes conditions are required for the transportation of goods, a large amount of water, a powerful sewer system — all this requires special conditions, and a cottage with a septic tank is not suitable for such purposes. These may be former car washes, premises of construction companies, car service centers.

Workshops are also often located on the territory of former factories, in office centers. But there are also exotic locations — for example, in Noginsk, the police found a sewing factory in the building of former medical and labor workshops (Krasnoslobodskaya St., 16). This is a wooden building built in the first half of the last century. In 2023, 10 Syrian citizens were sewing work clothes here, of course, illegally.

More profitable than the drug business

The Izvestia expert from the garment industry considers the model of work of shadow "shop workers" to be extremely profitable.

"It's very profitable — the employer doesn't pay taxes, illegal sewing workers and seamstresses don't pay taxes either," says the owner of a network of legal sewing industries, who wished to remain anonymous. — There's a cash flow, shifts from 8 to 12 hours. An employee on average costs the owner 4,000 per day. They usually live in a room adjacent to the workshop.

The interviewee noted that today, citizens of India, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are more often involved in such production than Vietnamese.

"Indian citizens are incredibly able—bodied, one person can sew more than 30 pieces of sweatpants per shift, depending on the complexity of the model," says the entrepreneur. — It depends on the qualifications.

According to her, Russian women also work, but on a "shift" basis.

— For example, girls come from Ivanovo for a month, earn money here, and then return to their factories in the "city of brides".

What is implemented and where

According to the source, handicraft products are sold on the markets and via the Internet.

— These are mainly tracksuits, dresses, blouses, jackets, coats, trousers, blazers, skirts, T-shirts, hoodies and polos. The raw materials are purchased on an agricultural street in Moscow. This is a huge market for fabrics, accessories, threads, knitwear, and so on. Many people there trade for cash and through transfers. Serious buyers will be offered to buy cheap "crooked" customs-cleared fabrics of any quality.

According to the expert, such market players cause significant damage to legitimate manufacturers.

— An honest entrepreneur pays taxes, wages, and rent. Accordingly, his price is much higher, although in fact the quality may be the same as that of illegal immigrants.

In her opinion, in order to restore order in this area, it is necessary to tighten control, first of all, by law enforcement officers, including in the field of setting up cash registers.

The problem of counterfeiting

Protecting a brand from counterfeits is even more difficult, the expert believes.

"Everything is being forged now — buttons, tags, labels, and even digital barcodes,— says fabrikant. — There are cases when such goods were delivered directly to boutiques on Tverskaya and Kutuzovsky. Fabrics in structure, density, and color are very similar to the "firm". A branded item is bought in a running size, it is unpacked, the designer creates a template with gradation in all sizes in a special computer program. Trial models are sewn off and if everything is "OK", they start production across the entire size range.

The problem of the production, import and sale of counterfeit and counterfeit goods has existed in Russia since the early 90s of the last century, lawyer Alexander Khaminsky, head of the Law Enforcement Center in Moscow and the Moscow Region, told Izvestia.

"For twenty years, large markets such as Cherkizovsky have been the main sites for the production and sale of counterfeit clothing," the source tells Izvestia. — Such places combined both production facilities, where counterfeit products were sewn, and sales facilities. However, to date, marketplaces have become the largest platforms through which counterfeit and falsified goods are sold, passed off as products of well-known world brands.

There is practically no control over the origin of goods by marketplaces, and if there is, it is extremely formal, the lawyer believes.

— Often, the sale of such goods is carried out either by one-day firms that cease their activities after the sale of significant shipments of counterfeit goods, or by individual entrepreneurs-dropers through whom such products are sold.

What is promised to the Vietnamese

Izvestia looked at national Vietnamese websites with job advertisements in Russia and found out that the average employee of a sewing workshop in Russia is promised from 20 to 25 million dong. a month, in terms of about 65-82 thousand rubles. As a rule, they promise free housing and meals. However, there is also a paid meal — from 3 million dong (about 10 thousand rubles) per month. Sometimes they ask you to pay 15 million VND (50 thousand rubles) for a flight. A law enforcement source said that in some cases, verification with the further deportation of a foreigner at the expense of the state may be initiated by the beneficiary of the proceedings. Of course, no one will tell the employee that he may spend several months in a temporary detention center for foreign citizens before being sent.