"I'm cold, the roof isn't closed properly, so there's water coming in. My fridge is empty and doesn't work. And I'm still scared." In the pouring rain, some 40 kilometers north of Paris, at the Survilliers (Val-d'Oise) freeway service area, Brighton Jonasi didn't dare get out of his truck on Friday, January 31, and couldn't even start it. Two days earlier, on the evening of January 29 and again on the night of January 30, four men in a van came to forcefully take the card he used to pay for petrol, the battery switch that enabled him to start the vehicle and the trailer he was transporting.

They told him they worked for his Slovakian company, Global Transporte, a subcontractor of the German Hegelmann group. Over the last few days, a dozen other drivers of Zimbabwean origin have had the same traumatic experience in Europe, and three of them are still stranded at French freeway service areas.

What appears to be retaliation follows the start of a strike by these employees. On the weekend of January 25 and 26, they stopped their trucks, demanding improved working conditions and health insurance. Having come to Europe with the promise of a salary of €1,500 a month, "or even 2,200 including bonuses," according to Jonasi, most of them have only received between €600 and €700 since October.

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