Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Spain.htm
Spain is a transit
and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. There has been an increase in the number
of minors trafficked into Spain for forced begging. In smaller numbers,
Chinese victims are trafficked to Spain, primarily for forced labor. A
coalition of 20 NGOs in Spain estimates that there are at least 50,000 people
in Spain who are victims of human trafficking. Particularly vulnerable to
trafficking are migrants from Romania and Bulgaria and possibly unaccompanied
migrant minors, though there is limited data available on the latter group. -
U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report,
June, 2009 Check out a later country report here
and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links have
been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Spain. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you like
to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims Ministry of Labor and Immigration ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Spanish police
rescue hostage boy BBC News, 9 June
2006 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5063150.stm [accessed 23
December 2010] Spain has cracked a number of groups smuggling Nigerian women. Two Nigerian women have been arrested in Spain accused of stealing a child and forcing his mother into prostitution to pay their ransom. The mother, also Nigerian, claims her son was snatched from her shortly after he was born four years ago. She said the women demanded 45,000 euros (£31,000) for his return and threatened her with "voodoo". The Price of a
Slave in Brazil Bernardete Toneto,
[originally in Portuguese in the newspaper Brasil
de Fato], February 2004 www.brazzil.com/2004/html/articles/feb04/p107feb04.htm [accessed 16
February 2015] AN ANIMAL IN A ZOO - Before leaving
Brazil, I suspected prostitution but I never imagined that I would be a
prisoner, threatened day and night. At the house, we were slaves. I never got
anything, not money, not clothes. I didn't have my documents so I couldn't
leave. We were given very little food, and we had to stay up until 5 am every
day, trying to get customers. We couldn't even
leave the house without being accompanied by "security." One of the
girls was threatened with death after she left for a weekend. They thought
she went looking for the Brazilian consulate. We never had routine medical
exams, much less tests for AIDS. I fled when I met a
Brazilian customer to whom I told my story. It seems that he had contact with
other groups because nine days after I told him my story he returned, gave me
a false passport and a ticket back to Brazil.
I escaped, but even today I think of my friends there who are being
held prisoners, like animals in a zoo. ***
ARCHIVES *** Human trafficking
ring that forced women to care for elderly busted in Spain Melissa Leon, Fox
News, 8 August 2019 www.foxnews.com/world/human-trafficking-elderly-busted-spain [accessed 11 August
2019] Spanish police have
busted a Nicaraguan family for trafficking women into the country and forcing
them to care for the elderly and ill. The family had
smuggled 50 women into Spain since 2016, took their passports, then forced
them to care for the elderly in private homes and confiscated most of the
money they made, Spain's Civil Guard said, the AFP reported Thursday. "The criminal
group dominated and controlled all of its victims with constant threats,
intimidation, deceptions and coercion, warning them that their relatives in
Nicaragua would suffer the consequences if they reported what was
happening," police said in a press release Wednesday. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Spain U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/spain/
[accessed 25 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR There were cases of
employers subjecting migrant men and women to forced labor in domestic
service, agriculture, construction, and the service industry. Unaccompanied
children were particularly vulnerable to labor exploitation and labor
trafficking through forced begging. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT There were reports
that criminals exploited children in child sex trafficking and forced
prostitution as well as pornography. Police databases do not automatically
register foreign children intercepted at the borders, making them vulnerable
to exploitation and human trafficking, including labor trafficking through
forced begging and child sex trafficking and forced prostitution (see section
6, Children). Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/spain/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 6 May 2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Residents generally
have access to economic opportunity and protection from exploitative working
conditions. Despite strong antitrafficking efforts
by law enforcement agencies, however, migrant workers remain vulnerable to
debt bondage, forced labor, and sexual exploitation. Spain breaks up
male-prostitute trafficking ring The Telegraph, 31
August 2010 [accessed 25
February 2019] A sex-trafficking
ring that provided young men with Viagra, cocaine and other stimulant drugs
after bringing them to Spain to work as prostitutes has been busted,
authorities said on Tuesday. The victims, men in
their 20s and estimated to number between 60 and 80, were mainly recruited in
northern Brazil and saddled with debts of up to €4,000 (£3,300) as the cost
of bringing them to Spain. Some were duped
into thinking legitimate jobs awaited them as go-go dancers or models; others
knew they would be working in the sex industry, but not that they had to be
prepared for sex around the clock and would be moved from one province to
another depending on demand for their services, Mr
Nieto told a news conference. The men had to give
half their earnings to the gang, and pay for rent and food in the apartments
where they worked. "If the men
complained or caused any kind of problem, the gang leaders would threaten
them, even with death," the police statement said. Spain Links Voodoo
to Forced-Prostitution Case Victoria Burnett,
New York Times, Madrid, May 22, 2009 www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/world/europe/23spain.html?_r=3&ref=world [accessed 24
December 2010] The traffickers
lured their victims with promises of a better life in Europe and took them to
a voodoo priest before departure, the police said in a statement. The
traffickers then smuggled them to Spain, where they told the victims they had
to become prostitutes to repay a hefty debt for their journey or face the
wrath of voodoo spirits. Women were taken to
a voodoo shrine and made to swear before a priest that they would never
reveal the identities of the traffickers, he said. The priests took pieces of
fingernails or hair from the women as part of the ritual. “People here are very scared of the power
of voodoo, so the traffickers tell the victims that if they do anything funny
they will invoke voodoo,” Mr. Mojeed said in a
telephone interview. RIGHTS: Activists
Demand that Spain Sign Convention Against Human Trafficking Alicia Fraerman, Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, MADRID,
Feb 13, 2008 www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41182 [accessed 24
December 2010] [accessed 28
September 2016] Gentiana Susaj, coordinator of the RED, said it is important for
Spain to sign and ratify the Convention because it is one of the foremost
European destination and transit countries for human trafficking. The victims
are mainly women aged between 18 and 25 from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia,
Romania, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Nigeria. These women are recruited in their
countries of origin and taken abroad by mafias who deceive or coerce them.
They are usually promised jobs in Spain, and when they arrive, most find
themselves locked up in brothels. Police arrest 60
people in crackdown on human trafficking ring eurozoneweekly.blogspot.com/2008/02/police-raids-five-brothels-and-nine.html [access date
unavailable] Police in southern
Spain arrested 60 people Thursday in a crackdown on a human trafficking ring
that forced an estimated 2,000 Russian women into prostitution, an official
said. Authorities raided
five brothels and nine homes in the province of Almeria, arresting 13 people
suspected of leading the ring. Investigators
believe the women were brought to Spain with fake documentation and kept
under strict lockdown in the nightclubs where they were forced to work. Spanish police
arrest 7 for human-trafficking Associated Press AP,
Madrid, 7 April 2007 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 11
September 2011] The arrests took
place in the northeastern Mediterranean coastal region of Costa Brava, where
the gang allegedly smuggled in women, mostly from Russia, forcing them to
work streetwalking or in roadside brothels, police said. Police said the group employed two people
based in St. Petersburg, Russia, who targeted women by offering jobs in Spain
in exchange for Š2,000 (US$2,675). Spanish, Bulgarian
police dismantle alleged human trafficking ring Associated Press AP,
Sofia, October 17, 2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 11
September 2011] The ring —
allegedly led by 35-year-old Bulgarian, who was not identified by name — is
suspected of organizing the smuggling of more than 500 women from eastern
European countries into Spain, where police said the victims were treated as
"sex slaves." "The
women's freedom of movement was restricted, and they were often subjected to
violence," Petrov said, adding that they were
forced to work as prostitutes. Spanish general
prosecutor: Human trafficking, main Romanian problem in Spain Denisa Maruntoiu,
12 October 2006 -- Source:
www.daily-news.ro/article_detail.php?idarticle=30691 [accessed 24 June
2013] HUMAN TRAFFICKING
MAIN ROMANIAN PROBLEM IN SPAIN - Spain's general prosecutor Candido Conde Pumpido stressed
yesterday that the biggest problem the Spanish judicial authorities face when
it comes to Romanians is the human trafficking. Spanish police have
broken up a gang of Romanian human traffickers Siskind's Immigration
Bulletin www.andalucia.co.uk/channels/html/news/news_in_spain_and_europe_1336.html [accessed 4
September 2014] INTERNATIONAL
ROUNDUP
- Spanish police have broken up a gang of Romanian human traffickers who were
faking identity documents and credit cards. Twenty-two people have been
arrested, the majority of them Romanians.
The gang specialized in bringing Romanian women, often under-age
girls, to Spain to force them into prostitution. Spanish Police
Arrest 14 in Crackdown on Immigrant Prostitution Ring Associated Press AP,
Madrid, 2005-06-06 www.libertadlatina.org/eur_spain_police_arrest_14_free_54_enslaved_brazilian_women_05-06-2005.htm [accessed 24
December 2010] The group recruited
hundreds of women coming mainly from Brazil. Gang members arranged passports
and air tickets to Spain, where the women were persuaded and forced to work
illegally as prostitutes in clubs in the southern regions of Andalusia and
Extremadura and then to hand over their earnings, a police statement said. FG Smashes Human
Trafficking Syndicate Kingsley Newzeh & Iyefu Adoba, This Day, Abuja, 25 January 2005 www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-127782432/fg-smashes-human-trafficking.html [accessed 24 June
2013] allafrica.com/stories/200501250914.html [accessed 6 May
2020] According to Babandede, the parcel contained shocking pornographic
photographs of Nigerian girls based in Spain, agreement of debt bondage to
their "madams," Spanish immigration documents, pubic hairs,
menstrual discharge pads and payment records. The Protection
Project – Spain [PDF] The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS),
The Johns Hopkins University www.protectionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Spain.pdf [accessed 24
February 2016] A Human Rights
Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children ECPAT Spain
launches a new campaign against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children (CSEC) Madrid (Spain), June
2nd, 2004 – ECPAT Spain Consortium, Secretary of Communication At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 11
September 2011] The campaign’s main
goal is the prevention of CSEC by raising the awareness of people travelling
from Spain to tourist destinations known to offer the opportunity to engage
in sexual relationships with minors. Dying to Leave -
Human Trafficking Worldwide: Morocco Thirteen, New York
Public Media, September 25th, 2003 www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/dying-to-leave/human-trafficking-worldwide/morocco/1453/ [accessed 24
December 2010] www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/uncategorized/human-trafficking-worldwide-morocco/1453/ [accessed 18
February 2018] COUNTER-TRAFFICKING
EFFORTS
- In 2001, tensions between Spain and Morocco increased as government
officials on each side blamed the other country for smuggling and trafficking
problems in the region. Spain
accused Morocco of not doing enough to limit the illegal activities, while
Morocco claimed that Spanish mafia
gangs were responsible for the increase in the number of illegal
immigrants who tried to enter Spain by boat from Morocco. These days Spain
has set up a network of sensors and cameras along the coast to intercept
illegal migrants. Concluding
Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 7 June 2002 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/spain2002.html [accessed 24
December 2010] [8] In line with
its previous recommendation (ibid., para.20), the Committee welcomes the
improvement of safeguards in the cases of inter-country adoption contained in
Act 1/1996 and the ratification of the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of
Children and Cooperation in respect of Inter-country Adoption. Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/europecentral-asia/spain [accessed 24
December 2010] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61676.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Methods used by traffickers to maintain control of their victims included
physical abuse, forced use of drugs, withholding of travel documents, and
threats to the victim's family. Women from Eastern Europe reportedly were
subject to more severe violence and threats by traffickers. Traffickers lured
some victims from other regions with false promises of employment in service
industries and agriculture but then forced them into prostitution upon their
arrival in the country. The media reported that criminal networks often lured
their victims by using travel agencies and newspaper advertisements in their
home countries that promised guaranteed employment in Spain. Typically in the
case of Romanian organized networks, women were forced into prostitution
where 90 percent of their earnings were marked for the criminal network; men
were often employed in low-paying construction jobs. Clandestine clothing
production and sales as well as work in restaurants were typical employment
for illegal Asian immigrants, who came to the country with false documents
through trafficking networks. All material
used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for
noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - Spain",
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Spain.htm, [accessed <date>] |
