Two men, aged 36 and 42, were detained in Spain on charges of committing human trafficking, the Northern Directorate of Judicial Police (PJ) said in a statement on Wednesday.
The detention was the result of a joint investigation by the PJ with the Guardia Civil of Alava, in the Basque Country, the press release adds, identifying the detainees as Portuguese living in Spain.
The operation that started on May 4 in the Basque Country, under the name “Worker”, was the “dismantling a criminal group and the release of 15 Portuguese citizens who found themselves in a real situation of modern slavery”describes the press release of the PJ.
According to the investigative police, the “Victims were captured in Portugal, in the countryside in the north of the country, and transported to areas where they had to do their jobs, without family support and in a state of total vulnerability.”
“They were housed in old and unhealthy houses and forced to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, under inhumane conditions, under constant coercion and threats”adds the press release.
The PJ revealed that in the meantime the victims had been “accepted by Spanish institutions to be later transported to Portugal”.
The detainees “have a criminal record for this type of crime”, it also says.
Source: DN
