Spain frees more than a thousand victims of human trafficking and exploitation

Spain frees more than a thousand victims of human trafficking and exploitation

Spain frees more than a thousand victims of human trafficking and exploitation. Image: National Police/Twitter.

The National Police and Guardia Civil freed more than a thousand victims of human trafficking and exploitation for sexual or labour reasons in 2021.

The State Security Forces carried out 226 police operations and dismantled 64 organisations and criminal groups dedicated to trafficking Spain’s Interior Ministry confirmed on Wednesday, August 3.

The data comes from the Statistical Balance 2017-2021 on Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Beings in Spain, prepared by the Centre for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organised Crime (CITCO).

The National Police and Guardia Civil released 1,056 victims of trafficking networks. Two underaged girls were also released from being trafficked with the aim of forcing them into marriage.

Of the total number of victims, 187 were extorted by human smuggling networks that had managed to smuggle them into the country to profit from their sexual or labour exploitation.

A further 869 victims were subjected to sexual or labour exploitation. However, in these cases, it could not be confirmed if they had arrived in this situation as a result of the actions of any network.

These figures are the result of the 226 operations undertaken by the National Police and the Civil Guard in 2021, 74 of them linked to trafficking in human beings and 152 to sexual and labour exploitation. These actions led to the dismantling of 64 criminal organisations and groups and the arrest of 663 people.


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Anna Ellis

Originally from Derbyshire, Anna has lived in the middle of nowhere on the Costa Blanca for 19 years. She is passionate about her animal family including four dogs and four horses, musicals and cooking.

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