The situation in Spain has greatly evolved since 2015. The changes have been considerable in all areas, from important legislative reforms to significant improvements in the prevention and fight against trafficking in human beings, protection and assistance to victims and cooperation and coordination among institutions at national and international level.

One of the elements that remained unchanged is the situation of our country as a destination and transit country of the victims of trafficking in human beings. The strategic location of Spain in Europe makes it the door of two continents: South America and Africa. Besides, Spain continues to be an attractive destination for Asian citizens who try to later access the United Kingdom, United States of America or Canada.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, one of the most remarkable phenomena in the last years is the recruitment of victims within our borders, that is, domestic trafficking. This phenomenon has consolidated in the period 2017-2020: 7% of the police reports show Spain was the country of recruitment, which represents 6% of the total.

In order to identify the way of operating and the trends for the period 2015-2020, this is an analysis of trafficking in human beings from the point of view of recruitment, transfer and exploitation of the victims.

Recruitment

The forms of recruitment are inherently linked to the nationality of the victims and the offenders. The ways of operating change substantially depending on whether the networks are Nigerian, Chinese, Romanian or South American.

Among the victims from Eastern Europe, the “lover boy” method continues to be the most common. The recruiters approach their victims, usually from poor backgrounds and low educational level, and manage to establish a relationship with them and later on convince them and their families to travel to Spain. In order to convince them, they offer the victims work in the hotel or restaurant sector, caring of the elderly or children, etc. Sometimes, the deception is not in the type of activity but in the working conditions. Some victims know the activity they will carry out, mostly prostitution, but don’t know the semi-slavery conditions and even the real debt they will have towards their traffickers.

The way Nigerian networks work is linked to voodoo-juju practices, detailed in the Second Report. However, in the last two years, a considerable decrease of the number of victims of this nationality was observed. Among the potential reasons that led to this decrease may be the revocation of voodoo rites or curses by the Oba of Benin City, Nigeria in 2018. Most of the victims are recruited in Edo state, taking advantage of the vulnerability generated by poverty and lack of opportunities in the country.

The victims from South American countries are usually recruited being deceived about the conditions they will be subject to in Spain. Many times they know their final destination will be prostitution but they ignore the real conditions. In other cases, they are deceived with false job offers to care for the elderly or children, or to work as waitresses.

In the case of Asian victims, many of them are brought to Spain and once they are there, under the excuse of repaying the debt generated to facilitate their entry in the country, they suffer several forms of exploitation, among them labour exploitation, and are also forced to commit criminal activities, such as marijuana cultivation.

The recruitment means have not changed over the years: job advertisements in newspapers, travel agencies, recruitment using acquaintances or family members of the victims who are part of the network facilitating their transfer and exploiting them and other means. Nevertheless, the recruitment factor with the largest rise has been through online technologies. Social media and the internet are now one of the top means to recruit new victims. Even if we don’t have exact data, this form of recruitment was used in at least 10% of the registered cases; however this figure may probably be much higher. During the COVID-19 pandemic the use of online technologies reached an outstanding increase.

Finally, the age of the victims and their sex are stable compared to the previous report. In trafficking for sexual exploitation, the average percentage of women is more than 90%, while in the case of trafficking for labour exploitation, men represent around 80%. Regarding the age of the victims of trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation, the victims are mostly between 18 and 32 (70%). In the case of trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation, the age of most victims is between 18 and 42 (80%).

The figures of children victims identified continue to be limited compared to the total number of victims identified. This does not mean there are no children victims but rather the children are hidden and it is difficult to detect them.

Concerning women from Latin America, the Government Delegation for Gender Violence has informed (according to the information provided by non-governmental agencies) about new profiles which, even if they are included in our Criminal Code, differ from the stereotype of victims of trafficking who suffer violence or are coerced and threatened. Specifically, the recruitment of women in a situation of special vulnerability who are fleeing situations of poverty, need or conflict, and are recruited by trafficking networks that do not finance their journey any more but request them to repay that debt later. In order to start the journey, the victims are put in contact with the lenders so that, when the victims arrive to Spain, if they are not finally exploited (because they escape the network or are sent back to the border), this will entail no cost for the trafficking network, but the victims are indebted in their country of origin, compromising their families.

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