A total of 1,056 victims of trafficking and sexual and labor exploitation were released in Spain in 2021

Among the victims of sexual exploitation, six minors were released, including two girls forced to marry

MADRID, 3 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

During 2021, the National Police and the Civil Guard released a total of 1,056 victims of trafficking networks and subjected to different situations of sexual or labor exploitation in Spain.

Just over half of the people released, a total of 565, were subjected to labor exploitation and the remaining 491 for sexual reasons. Including two minor girls who were released, also for trafficking, in order to force their marriage.

This is reflected in the 2017-2021 Statistical Balance on Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Beings in Spain, prepared by the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), attached to the Secretary of State for Security of the Ministry of the Interior.

As reported by the Ministry of the Interior, among the total number of victims, 187 were extorted by networks of illicit trafficking in human beings that had managed to introduce them into the country to profit from their sexual or labor exploitation.

To this figure we must add 869 more people who have been subjected to processes of sexual or labor exploitation, although in their case it has not been possible to confirm that they had reached this situation as a result of the action of some human trafficking network.

These figures are the result of the 226 operations undertaken by the National Police and Civil Guard in 2021, specifically, 74 of them are linked to human trafficking and the remaining 152 to sexual and labor exploitation. In addition, these actions allowed the dismantling of 64 criminal organizations and groups and the arrest of 663 people.

Regarding data on sexual exploitation, the main countries of origin of these victims are Colombia, Paraguay, Romania and Venezuela. In total, the statistical balance specifies that the victims released from human trafficking networks for sexual exploitation were 136: 129 women, 5 men and 2 minors.

In the case of victims rescued from situations of sexual exploitation, the same proportion is repeated: of a total of 355, 342 were adult women, 9 men and 4 girls. Most of them from Colombia, Spain, the Dominican Republic and Romania.

In this sense, in 2021, the National Police and the Civil Guard carried out 1,380 administrative inspections in places where prostitution is exercised, an activity that allowed the identification of 4,704 people at risk for exercising prostitution in those establishments, as reported by the Interior.

On the other hand, regarding the actions undertaken against human trafficking networks for the purpose of labor exploitation, the released victims amount to 51, 33 of them female and, for the most part, with Honduras as their country of origin.

Similarly, the victims rescued from situations of labor exploitation were 514 in 2021, two of them minors. In this case, the majority sex is male -- 392 adults and one minor --, and the main nationalities are Moroccan, Senegalese and Nicaraguan.

Against labor exploitation, the National Police and Civil Guard carried out a total of 5,218 administrative inspections in as many work centers, in which up to 13,836 workers were identified at risk due to a possible violation of their labor rights.

From the Ministry of the Interior they have stressed that human trafficking "is a serious violation of human rights and one of the most lucrative criminal activities", only behind drug trafficking and at the same level as arms trafficking.

As reported, given this growing reality, the Ministry has promoted the development of a National Strategic Plan against Trafficking and Exploitation of Human Beings 2021-2023, which was presented on January 12.

The plan strengthens and articulates measures to improve the fight against this crime and facilitate assistance and protection to its victims. All this through a cooperation mechanism between the different bodies of the General State Administration involved, as well as with specialized organizations of civil society, as reported by the Interior.