2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

S P A I N
186
Protection
Government protection for trafficking victims
during the reporting period remained inadequate
and no department dedicated financial or staff
resources specifically for trafficking victims. While
the government operated facilities that provide an
array of social services to its citizens, including 10
“Thuthuzela” reception centers that offer medical
and psychological care to victims of sexual violence,
it remains unclear whether trafficking victims
utilized any of these services in 2006. However,
police referred an unknown number of trafficking
victims to local NGO-run shelters during the
reporting period; the government provided financing
to some of these facilities to assist in the care of
victims. Police requested IOM’s participation in joint
interviews of suspected foreign victims and referred
a number of victims to the organization for shortterm
care and repatriation. The government actively
encouraged victims’ assistance in the investigation
and prosecution of their traffickers; at least six trafficking
victims were placed in South Africa’s witness
protection program during the year to enable their
involvement. In December, however, photographs
of four Thai women in witness protection appeared
in a Durban newspaper, increasing threats against
their lives and families in Thailand. One group of
suspected foreign victims was detained in a jail cell
with their alleged traffickers, seriously compromising
their ability to assist in a prosecution. There are no
legal alternatives to the removal of foreign
trafficking victims to countries where they
face hardship or retribution. While local
law enforcement’s ability to question
migrants improved, the lack of national
coordination and procedures for victim
protection continued to lead to deportation
of most foreign victims before they
were able to give evidence in court. In
addition, immigration officials did not
attempt to identify trafficking victims
among undocumented foreigners,
notably Mozambicans, before deporting them.
Prevention
While awareness of human trafficking has increased
substantially within the country over the past year,
government efforts in promoting awareness were
minimal. The Sexual Offenses and Community
Affairs Unit within the NPA remained responsible
for coordination of the Human Trafficking Inter-
Sectoral Task Team. This team’s ability to function
remained hampered by the lack of a specific
mandate from the Department of Justice and poor
coordination with other departments; it produced
no substantial efforts during the year. Also due to
the lack of a mandate, the preliminary National
Plan of Action adopted in March 2006 was not
implemented. In August, the Women’s Parliament
conducted a two-day meeting focusing on human
trafficking.
SPAIN (Tier 1)
Spain is a transit and destination country for men,
women, and children trafficked for the purposes
of commercial sexual exploitation and forced
labor. While most victims are women between the
ages of 18 and 24 trafficked for sexual exploitation,
females as young as 16 are also trafficked to
Spain for the same purpose and men are trafficked
for forced labor, usually in agriculture. Primary
source countries for victims trafficked to Spain are
Romania, Russia, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria,
though victims are trafficked from other areas of
Latin America and Eastern Europe as well as from
Sierra Leone. In smaller numbers, Chinese women
are trafficked to Spain for sexual exploitation and
Chinese men for labor exploitation.
The Government of Spain fully complies with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
Spain aggressively investigated, arrested, and
prosecuted trafficking crimes, closely monitoring
these efforts through effective crime data collection.
Spain’s anti-trafficking legislation includes victim
protection mechanisms, which are implemented
largely through government cooperation with
NGOs. To strengthen its response to trafficking,
Spain should finalize its national action plan to
combat trafficking and continue and expand its
demand reduction efforts.
Prosecution
The Government of Spain demonstrated strong
efforts to combat trafficking through law enforcement
in the last year. Spain prohibits all forms
of trafficking in persons though Article 318 of its
Criminal and Penal Code, which was passed in 1995
and amended in 2003 to increase the sentence for
sex trafficking to 5 to 15 years’ imprisonment and
the penalty for labor trafficking to 4 to 12 years in
prison, both sufficiently stringent penalties. The
penalty prescribed for sex trafficking is commensurate
with the nation’s 15-year maximum sentence for
rape. In December 2006, the Council of Ministers
approved increasing sentences for trafficking by
two to six years in prison if the perpetrator belongs
to a criminal organization. During the reporting
period, Spanish police dismantled 177 sex trafficking
networks and 63 labor trafficking rings. Police
arrested 862 individuals for sex trafficking and 177
for labor trafficking. In 2006, police launched 272