The National Police carried out two operations aimed at dismantling labor trafficking tied to exploitation, leading to three arrests in an ongoing investigation. One operation targeted a car wash in Alicante, where workers were reportedly kept on site across the week, earning about four euros per hour. The other operation focused on a vegetable packing and distribution facility in Callosa de Segura, where workers allegedly endured long shifts—up to 16 hours—peeling onions for roughly ten euros in total, with an average rate of about 1.6 euros per hour. The arrests included two men and a 54-year-old woman, all identified as Hispanic, who faced charges of assisting illegal immigration and labor trafficking, in addition to violations of workers’ rights.
Authorities indicate that the detainees’ companies were involved in practices that denied workers basic protections. Many workers reportedly operated without formal employment contracts, lacked accident insurance, and did not possess valid residence and work permits. Immigrant workers, who often faced language barriers and limited awareness of their rights, were seen as particularly vulnerable in these circumstances.
Group III, known as the Unit Against Illegal Immigrant Networks and Falsified Documents (UCRIF), alongside the Alicante Provincial Immigration and Border Brigade, led the investigations into labor exploitation by foreign nationals. UCRIF agents conducted a series of on-site inspections at the two locations, gathering essential data and coordinating with the Labor Inspection authority in Alicante to assess conditions, verify documents, and plan the next steps in the enforcement process.
Two investigators from the inspection team visited the Callosa de Segura facility to assess working conditions firsthand and interview workers about their hours, wages, and safety practices.
Both cases surfaced through National Police findings and reveal a troubling pattern in which some firms used fundraising and distribution channels to facilitate exploitation of foreign workers at a vegetable facility in Callosa de Segura. Inspectors documented that 16 workers at the site were non-national or had irregular status, with nine of them in Spain without proper authorization. The information gathered from workers themselves indicated sustained abuse of working conditions that ignored basic safety standards and left many vulnerable to exploitation during the workday.
According to testimonies collected during the inquiries, immigrant laborers were compelled to undertake marathon shifts with no adequate protections for occupational hazards. The typical schedule began early in the morning and extended into late evening, sometimes without breaks for meals. At the heart of these assignments was the job of peeling onions, with workers paid on a piece-rate basis that translated to about five euro cents per kilogram of cleaned vegetables. To earn the equivalent of ten euros, a worker would need to process roughly 100 kilograms, resulting in an hourly rate averaging around 1.6 euros for those shifts. This breakdown illustrates the severe undervaluing of labor that violates standard labor norms and undermines workers’ rights.
Authorities arrested a man and a woman believed to be responsible for the labor exploitation, and proceedings were initiated to present the case to the appropriate court in Vega Baja. In the car-wash operation, another set of arrests followed, with six workers at the site—five of whom were foreign nationals and two in irregular status—subject to a broader review of the employer’s practices. The owner of the car wash was taken into custody, and those workers faced forced labor conditions described as continuous work from Monday through Sunday, with no payment for illness or sick days. The wages, reported at about 140 euros weekly, translated to roughly four euros per hour for those who could claim any remuneration.