Exploitation and human trafficking

ALICANTE’S provincial court has sentenced a strip club owner to four years and three months in prison for exploiting foreign sex workers.

According to an official statement, the defendant was the manager of three companies which maintained 33 women, 20 of whom were illegal immigrants, in five brothels located in Alicante, Cuenca, Ibiza and Mallorca.

Many of the women were under the illusion that they would be employed as waitresses, although others were aware that they would be made to work as prostitutes but accepted the terms on offer due to their economic situations.

Agents working for the ringleader would bring the girls to Spain, before delivering them to the pimp, who would confiscate their passports and force them to pay off the cost of their flight as well as charging a fee for employing them.

The women were told to pay a daily fee for room rental within each club, as well as paying fees for absenteeism and any ‘work’ conducted outside the premises.

One of the exploited women eventually escaped and presented herself at the police station in Villena, after which an official investigation was launched.