Police squads in Alentejo, southern Portugal, raided farms and arrested 28 people Tuesday on suspicion of human trafficking and labor exploitation. In a press release, Portugal’s Judicial Police said the effort, called “Operation Mirror,” involved 480 operatives in collaboration with prosecutors from the Évora region and the Portuguese airforce.
It is believed that the suspects did not work in isolation. Instead, they were allegedly part of an international organized crime ring that illegally transported migrants to Portugal to exploit their labor. The crime ring is said to have taken migrants from European countries like Romania, Albania and Moldova as well as countries in Africa and Asia. Furthermore, the suspects are accused of tax fraud, firearms offenses and documentation fraud on top of trafficking charges.
Publico, a local news source, reported that many victims were recovered and remained silent and “afraid” during the operation. Many victims came intending to work on the farms for an undetermined amount of time. Some migrants work for free or with extremely low pay and in “inhumane” and “unsafe” conditions.
Portugal has had previous operations targeting human traffickers and labor exploiters since 2021. In November 2022, a raid in Espinho found a 29-year-old woman who was suffering from severe malnourishment-related anemia and was receiving 50 euros a month for working 16 hours a day. The suspects were a foreign couple living in Portugal who stood trial shortly after the raid. Then, in June 2023, at least four were arrested by Portugal’s maritime police and Border Force (SEF) in a massive joint operation targeting illegal clam harvesting, which led to the identification of 250 missing/exploited migrants in the Setúbal district.
Both the US Embassy in Portugal and the Council of Europe have worked with Portugal to end trafficking. In January 2021, the US Department of State and the US Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit collaborated with Portugal’s police and Border/Immigration body to provide training and improve prosecutions. By 2022, US Department of State said that Portugal does not “fully meet the minimum standards” to wipe out trafficking, but they are making “significant efforts to do so.” Also in 2022, the Council of Europe’s expert group on human trafficking (GRETA) set out proposals to improve trafficking victims’ access to legal aid and compensation in Portugal. The council also found that Portugal is a country of origin and transit for trafficking during the Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking convention.
