The Spanish Civil Guard has dismantled a criminal group dedicated to trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labor exploitation
The Civil Guard, in coordination with the Burgos Labor and Social Security Inspectorate, in the so-called “Tarator” operation, have freed 14 victims who were being exploited for work in that province.
The investigation, which is still open, has allowed the arrest of 3 people for the commission of crimes of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labor exploitation. The people arrested are of Romanian and Senegalese origin, the victims from sub-Saharan countries.
The organization captured its victims in the southern provinces of Spain, where they live in settlements, taking advantage of their vulnerability (ignorance of the language, scarce economic resources, social isolation, irregular situation in our country, etc.). They offered deceptive conditions and a Once they were transferred to the province of Burgos, they did not comply, crowding them in inhuman conditions and withholding their documentation.
Later they were put to work in the harvest, fraudulently, without contracts or social security registrations, exploiting them in the harvest and forcing them to work long hours for the benefit of the detainees, who did not deliver the economic amount agreed with their victims.
The collaboration offered by the company for which the victims worked has been essential for the success of the operation, which was unaware of the conditions to which the traffickers were subjected once the working day was over, providing documentation and data that have been essential. for the development of it.
The fourteen victims who have been released and identified are between 29 and 44 years old and have been assisted and housed with the collaboration of the NGOs Cruz Roja, ACCEM and Cruz Blanca, who have also provided legal advice to them.
Several registries have been carried out in which numerous personal documents of the victims have been intervened (national identity documents of their country, as well as NIE applications), notebooks of notes on the work and what they were paid.
Operation “Tarator” has been carried out by the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Burgos Civil Guard Command.
Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labor exploitation
The agrarian field is one of the sectors where criminal groups dedicated to trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labor exploitation carry out their activity.
The different harvesting campaigns of agricultural products on farms are especially sensitive because they generate a great demand for temporary workers concentrated in seasonal periods.
Trafficking organizations recruit their victims by deception and profit illicitly from their work in the field. They are usually foreigners (community and third countries) who are already in Spain or who are captured directly in their countries of origin to be exploited.
Action of the Civil Guard
Trafficking in human beings is a priority for the Civil Guard and its comprehensive action capabilities make it an international benchmark in the fight against this phenomenon.
In addition to working jointly with institutions and organizations such as the UN, the Council of Europe or EUROPOL, assuming as a special orientation the consideration of Trafficking in Human Beings as one of the priority areas (EMPACT) of the Political Cycle of the European Union, the Guard Civil also collaborates on a bilateral level with agencies and police forces of different countries, especially with the countries of origin or destination (when Spain is considered as a transit country).
The Civil Guard directs its actions towards the protection, assistance and recovery of the victims, for which it works with the essential help of the Institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of social assistance.
During 2020, the Civil Guard carried out a total of 1,254 preventive inspections in places where there could be victims of labor or sexual exploitation, identifying 5,029 people. Most of these inspections are carried out in coordination with the Labor Inspectorate and NGOs specializing in care for victims of trafficking. Likewise, in that period, 66 investigations have been carried out in which a total of 313 victims have been released and 144 people have been detained for crimes of trafficking and labor and sexual exploitation.