Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

TRAFFICKING

Seven arrests as police smash trafficking ring

Police in Sweden arrested seven people on Monday morning for their suspected role in a human trafficking network.

Published: 7 December 2009 14:58 CET

Three suspects were arrested in Malmö in southern Sweden and four more suspects were detained in Stockholm County on suspicions of human trafficking and aggravated pimping.

The police said in a statement that the case involves a number of women who were subjected to human trafficking for sexual purposes during 2008 and 2009.

A police spokesperson from Skåne in southern Sweden told the TT news agency that police don’t plan on releasing any more details about the case at this time.

“We’ll say more when we feel that we can do so,” Bo Lundquist of the Skåne police told news agency TT.

The investigation against the suspects, who allegedly recruited their victims from west Africa, has been ongoing since the spring.

The seven arrests took place through cooperative efforts between police in Skåne, Stockholm, and the National Criminal Investigation Department (Rikskriminalpolisen).

Law enforcement authorities and organizations in other countries were also involved in the investigation.

The seven suspects will face a remand hearing at the end of the week.

Police also said they may arrest more people in the case.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

PROSTITUTION

Spain’s top court reinstates first sex workers’ union

Spanish sex workers have the right to form their own union, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, overturning an earlier court decision ordering the dissolution of Spain's first such labour organisation.

Published: 2 June 2021 16:34 CEST
Spain's top court reinstates first sex workers' union
Photo: Oscar del Pozo/AFP

Known as OTRAS (or “the Sex Workers’ Organisation”), the union was discretely set up in August 2018 but was closed three months later by order of the National Court following an appeal by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

But following an appeal, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of OTRAS, saying that its statutes, which had triggered the initial legal challenge, were “in line with the law” and that sex workers “have the fundamental right to freedom of association and the right to form a union”.

In its November 2018 ruling, the National Court had argued that allowing the union to exist amounted to “recognising the act of procurement as lawful”.

READ MORE:

Contacted by AFP, the union did not wish to comment.

When it was founded, OTRAS received the green light from the labour ministry and its statutes were publicly registered in the official gazette the day before the government went into a summer recess.

But three weeks later, the government — which portrays itself as “feminist and in favour of the abolition of prostitution” according to Sanchez’s Twitter feed at the time — started legal moves against it.

In Spain, prostitution is neither legal nor illegal but it is tolerated.

Although it is not recognised as employment, there is a large number of licensed brothels throughout the country.

READ ALSO: 

SHOW COMMENTS