National Police release young woman in Almeria

A YOUNG Nigerian woman who had been forced into prostitution in Roquetas del Mar has been released by officers of the National Police.

As part of an on-going action against Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation officers became aware of the fact that a Nigerian woman who had been smuggled into Spain had been blackmailed into acting as a prostitute by a gang of human traffickers.

Officers searched three properties in the town, freeing the woman, arresting two members of the gang and seizing computer records which will be analysed with the expectation of identifying further information on the gang’s activities.

The woman in question had left Nigeria with her two brothers and settled in Morocco for a year and a half where she was reduced to begging in order to feed herself and her very young child before moving to Libya and then Italy where she settled in a refugee camp.

It was whilst she was in the camp that she was approached by a woman who offered to help her move to Spain where she was promised a well-paid and legal job but when she arrived in Roquetas del Mar she was told that she owed those who brought her there €25,000 and would have to turn to prostitution to repay the debt.

This woman is one of a number who have been released from forced prostitution by the National Police across Spain during 2016.