Police authorities have detained four members of criminal networks linked to exploiting migrant workers for the illegal harvesting and trade of shellfish, news agency Reuters reported yesterday (21 June). 

Police operations were conducted by about 300 maritime police and border patrol officers in two buildings in Samouco, a village on the south bank of the River Tagus.

During the operation, hundreds of alleged victims of labor exploitation were found inside a big warehouse where they were reportedly housed to illegally harvest shellfish.

The maritime police, which led the investigation, said in a statement that all of the 243 victims identified so far were migrants. 

Local media reports said that the suspected victims worked at the Tagus Estuary, an area where the unlicensed harvesting of shellfish is common. 

Increase in labor exploitation and human trafficking 

Portugal is listed primarily as a country of destination of trafficked persons or people who are recruited — often using means of fraud and deception — for the purpose of profiting from their labor. 

Portugal is also a country of origin and transit for trafficked persons. 

A European Commission report in 2016 identified Portugal as having a higher proportion of labor Trafficking victims per one million of the population than any other European Union state except Malta.

Portuguese authorities have been cracking down on labor trafficking, carrying out raids in areas where labor migrants are suspected to be working in exploitative conditions.

Last year, InfoMigrants reported on how the booming agriculture industry has made Portuguese regions like Alentejo and Almeirim a destination for migrant labor — and a hotspot for labor exploitation. 

Traffickers have capitalized on the demand for cheap labor and lax visa regulations that position Portugal as an express route to Europe to lure and exploit migrant workers from South Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Seasonal migrant workers — or those who work temporarily only during certain times of the year such as agricultural harvest season — are especially vulnerable.

Traffickers transport victims to farms located in the interior of the Alentejo region of western Portugal, where they often live in residential containers or crammed together in deplorable housing.

The Council of Europe said in June last year that Portuguese authorities identified 1,152 presumed victims of trafficking in 2016-2020, the majority of whom were working in the agricultural sector. The numbers are likely to be higher. 

Urged to ‘do more’ to curb trafficking

The latest US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, the global report on government efforts to curb human trafficking, lists Portugal with a Tier 2 ranking.

Under the three rankings employed by the TIP, a Tier 2 ranking means “the Government of Portugal does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so”. 

Specifically, as outlined in the TIP Report, the number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions remained low compared to the number of identified victims.

Read more: Portugal urged to do more to identify human trafficking victims

The virtual lack of reported trafficking cases among those seeking asylum — despite asylum cases on the rise — is of particular concern to GRETA, the Council of Europe’s leading authority on human trafficking.

“GRETA has some concerns about this lack of identification [of victims of trafficking among asylum seekers],” Daniela Ranalli, a member of the Group’s secretariat, said.

GRETA has urged the Portuguese authorities to identify trafficking victims from among asylum seekers and improve trafficking victims’ access to legal aid.

With Reuters