Human Trafficking

SEF detains suspect for trafficking in human beings

The Immigration and Borders service (SEF) has detained, yesterday, at Lisboa Airport, a 45-year-old man for evidences of trafficking in human beings, assisting unlawful immigration and using someone else’s document.

The detainee, arriving in a flight from Bissau, was accompanying a 5-year-old minor which he has identified as his daughter, claiming that he was returning to Belgium, where he lives.

However, and during the usual border control, the child’s document raised suspicions, for which the cooperation of the Documentary Identification and Expertise Unit of SEF has been requested. After careful analysis, it has been confirmed to be someone else’s document.

After a personal search and to the hold baggage, SEF has additionally detected several someone else’s documentation, in particular birth certificates, residence certificates, passports, a handwritten sales declaration of a French passport of a thousand euros, and several records of wire transfers. Every document suggests documentary fraud.

The minor has been led by SEF to the Social security Multidisciplinary Teams and, later on, accommodated in a safe house.

The detainee will be brought before the Court, today, for a possible application of the cautionary measures.