The Civil Guard rescued 52 Romanians who were being exploited as laborers on a fruit plantation in the Spanish province of Seville. The Romanians were recruited through ads posted on social media, and six members of the group were arrested, reports El Espanol, which reports extensively about the case.
The criminal group had been operating for several years in the city of Brenes, and the group members recruited the victims through ads posted on social media in Romania. They would then talk on the phone, promising them legal jobs, high salaries, free accommodation and transportation, according to the source cited.
When they arrived in Spain, the reality was different. The people were taken to houses in Brenes and other nearby towns, where, according to the Civil Guard, the conditions were “extremely unsanitary.”
Moreover, although they were promised free transportation, they were abusively charged for travel expenses. Furthermore, the workers had their passports confiscated and were forced to work “whole days” picking fruit from the fields.
The victims were also not registered with Social Security, and their salaries were much lower than those established by Spanish agreements, the investigation shows.
In addition to the unacceptable living and working conditions, the people were threatened and in some cases beaten. In February last year, in another case investigated by Spanish authorities, 21 people of Romanian and Moldovan nationality who were living and working in conditions of slavery in the localities of Brenes and Cantillana were identified and released.
Authorities descended on the scene where they discovered a series of untidy barracks, managing to free all 52 workers. During the operation, six Romanians identified as the leaders of the exploitation network were also arrested.
According to the law, the penalties for labor exploitation and human trafficking are severe. Those detained will be tried and, depending on the evidence collected, will face harsh sanctions, designed to discourage such practices of abuse and exploitation.
I will stop buying Spanish fruit. I prefer Greek but absent that, I settled for Spanish.