The Civil Guard, in collaboration with the Labor Inspection of Ávila, has arrested three people for a crime of trafficking in human beings in a company in Candeleda (Ávila) dedicated to the trade of packaged foods in which ten Nepalese women worked in conditions of semi-slavery since last September.
With the arrest of these three people, two businessmen and a member of the organization in charge of bringing these people, the first steps have been taken to dismantle a “criminal organization dedicated to trafficking in human beings,” as explained in a conference. the chief captain of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police, Juan José Vallejo, presses.
For this reason, he explained that the operation baptized as “Lhotse” remains open without ruling out new arrests within the framework of this action that, although announced this Friday, was carried out on October 2, as has been reported. explained the subdelegate of the Government in Ávila, Fernando Galeano.
These ten Nepalese citizens, between 24 and 38 years old, lived in a regime of semi-slavery in a warehouse attached to the company, deprived of documentation and money, without being able to leave the facilities in which they lived poorly without being accompanied, on rare occasions, by the person in the organization who constantly monitored them.
This situation caused their social isolation, since they also had no knowledge of Spanish and only communicated with a few words in English.
In the ship they were in, they slept on mattresses on the floor; it lacked heating; the windows had no glass and were covered with plastic; The kitchen was dirty and they had to share a single bathroom which, in addition to limiting their privacy, made basic hygiene conditions difficult.
According to Juan José Vallejo, the “migratory cycle” of the victims, who arrived in Spain between July and August, began in their country of origin with “capture” by an organization that “deceived them by promising them work in Spain.”
Subsequently, the network paid them for transportation “because they lacked their own resources”, generating a debt of between 3,000 and 7,000 euros to make a trip whose first stop was in “transit countries” such as Serbia or Romania, from where they continued “via land” to Spain.
Once in their first destination, they were housed in apartments rented by the network in large cities, until they were distributed in different parts of Spain for exploitation, as in the case of this company in Candeleda (5,000 inhabitants), dedicated to manufacturing and marketing of packaged products and foods.
After being released “they continued to think that they had to pay a debt to the organization” that brought them to Spain, which made them “fearful,” according to the chief captain of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police.
They were initially attended to by the NGO APRAM, and later other organizations in defense of human rights took over.
The Civil Guard, which transferred the proceedings to the Arenas Courts of San Pedro (Ávila), keeps the operation open, without ruling out new arrests in the coming days or weeks.
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