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Rabat – National police in Zafra, near Spain’s Badajoz, have dismantled a network active in human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women.
Europa Press reported that the police arrested four suspects aged between19 and 62 in the operation.
The victims were Moroccan women who were living in Spain without documentation, Europa Press added.
The network pressured the women who were “highly vulnerable due to lack of work and lack of economic means.” The network first offered the women jobs as waitresses or cleaning restaurants. Most of the women were sending money to their families in Morocco.
The network, however, then forced the women to work at clubs as sex workers and promised them to legalize their status in Spain in exchange for €6,000, earned through sex work.
Police in Spain, according to Europa Press, said that the network also physically harassed the victims and threatened to report them to the police and have them deported.
According to the Spanish National Police, the network also used “Moroccan magic” to psychologically control the women through fear and superstition.
The police put the suspects in custody for further investigation.
The European Union said that Spain is one of the most popular “a destination for victims” of human trafficking, mainly from Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America.
“The modus operandi of the groups linked to this criminal activity is basically structured around three processes: recruitment, transfer and exploitation,” the EU said.
The document indicates that some victims know that they will be exploited and accept that “they are being trapped to go into prostitution, the deception being part of the condition for the activity (the number of hours, number of clients or the remuneration they are supposedly to receive).”
