A nearly blind 73-year-old man born in Eastern Europe with significant health problems was enslaved and treated like rubble in Barcelona’s Sants district this year. He had to comfort himself on the street and was beaten if he refused to beg. The police don’t want to reveal her name because those who abused her are still looking for her. “They treated her in an unflinching, contemptuous way, as if she were a property and not a person,” she explains. David AneraThe ‘kaporal’ of the Mossos d’Esquadra of the Human Smuggling Group, who, together with the same group of the City Guard, arrested their two exploiters. “All the abuse this man has been through is gruesome,” he sums up. Urban Sergeant Josep Forca. Investigators, who have been following the case for six months, tell EL PERIÓDICO, a newspaper that is a member of the Prensa Ibérica group, and this media what life was like for the ‘slave of Plaza Cerdà’.
Every day at seven in the morning the old man was standing in the Plaza de Cerdà. Sometimes they would take him to Tarragona Street, near the Plaza de España. They put a hat and a cane on his head, and there are obvious problems with walking, left to beg among cars stopped at traffic lights. They could easily crush him. “He had to save himself”Anera explains. Residents of this border area between El-Eixample and Sants alerted police forces last November. The police started a surveillance so they could prove he was a “slave”.
At the very least, the victim had to collect 100 euros every day from drivers standing at traffic lights. An amount that does not arrive until the evening. would I eat? “Luckily they gave him a piece of bread… otherwise the neighbors gave him something”, explains Sergeant Forca. Next to the enslaved beggar was a man in his 45s who did “exactly the same thing.” The difference is that the exploiters bought it. “They gave him a sandwich and said they had to keep an eye on the other guy, which was more embarrassing. and I have more money,” Forca continues.
alcohol as an anesthetic
At night, two abusers, a man and a woman, forced him into the car. “They put him in the trunk and took him to a vacant lot in the nearby Plaza de Magòria,” Anera explains. “There they gave him a pint of beer, and when he had finished, they took out all the coins he had bought,” the foreman continues. If he doesn’t agree, he’ll be beaten and beaten.”. “They took advantage of his alcoholism to control him,” Anera says. This dependency was key, so the older person refused benefits on two occasions.
The humiliation continued into the night. “The family who exploited them lived in a tent in the open field, but they they left them an exposed mattress“, Anera continues. Even when it rains or the temperatures drop below zero degrees. “There were days when the man was completely drenched and shivering”. He also relaxed in the open area without any attention to hygiene. At dawn, the same routine is back: trunk, traffic light, liter and cold. 217 days under the supervision of Mossos and Guardia Urbana.
view trips
Some days the old man disappeared. “They took him Romania, to let their relatives see that all is well, He describes the ‘caval’ of Mossos,” who has achieved a decent standard of living in Spain. After one of these trips, they decided to arrest the exploiters on 7 June. “We were afraid they wouldn’t come back” Justifies the head of the Mossos unit. The two people who were taken into custody were released because they did not have a criminal record. They were accused of similar acts and sexual exploitation in their home country, but later withdrew.
The agents suspect that the exploiters have amassed “a real wealth.” More than 20,000 Euros. They had 2,600 euros in cash on them when they were arrested. Why were they living on an empty lot at the same time? “We believe that all the money is invested in their country: buying a house, a car…”Anera says. As was customary in the slave trade, the two men had come to Barcelona, tricked by the family clan who had extorted money from them. “They were transferred by bus because it is easier to circumvent police checks than flights,” Forca says.
regain the vision
The old man now lives in a sheltered flat. “He was in such a bad state when we got him… he smelled, he did everything by himself… he didn’t look like a human being. Now he’s been able to clean himself, shave, calm… and they’ll soon be able to do cataract surgery to regain his sight.“, says Anera. Forca thanks the social beings who managed to activate a resource for the victim within a few hours. At first, when he was at the Center for Emergencies and Social Emergencies in Barcelona, the exploiters went unsuccessful and also went to some police stations to report his disappearance. .
The old man has a few days to consider whether he wants to cooperate with the police. “Your testimony is important”Sergeant accepts Forca. It was a homeless man from Passeig de Gracia who learned last week that his kidnappers were sentenced to 16 years in prison. “A leading sentence, they received the highest possible punishment, we want it” same thing happens in this case“, says Anera. These cases are not the only ones. The anti-trafficking group is working on two similar cases in the city of Barcelona.