The Spanish Attorney General’s Office warned of a 57.9% increase in victims of trafficking for sexual and labor exploitationand the majority are Latin American women, especially Colombians and Venezuelan.
According to what was reported by the EFE news agency, The Public Ministry attributed the increase, “in large part,” to the ability of criminal networks to capture a greater number of victims “more easily” with communication technologies.
In the 2025 annual report presented this week, The Prosecutor’s Office specified that the total number of potential victims reached 1,246 that year (789 were detected in 2024), of which 875 were formally identified as such and 371 are at serious risk of being so.
Of all of them, 442 victims of sexual trafficking were detected (416 in 2024), and another 362 at serious risk. 384 victims of labor trafficking have also been located (54.84% more than a year before).
Another 23 victims were found in mixed trafficking situations for labor and sexual exploitation or servitude, and the rest for other activities and purposes, such as four cases of forced marriages of underage women.
The document added that the Internet is frequently used to advertise women’s services through images of sexual content, the dissemination of which can also be used as a threat to pressure them.
The majority of victims are Latin Americans
Regarding the nationalities of the sexually exploited women, the Prosecutor’s Office explains that the preponderance of Nigerians and Romanian women a few years ago has given way to an “overwhelming majority” of Latin Americans, mainly Colombians and Venezuelans, who make up 54.5% of the total.
The victims have previously been able to engage in prostitution in their countries of origin, and/or are aware that this is the activity they are going to carry out in Spain. but they are deceived regarding the conditions “of abuse, coercion and exploitation” to which they are ultimately subjected.
These characteristics, according to the Public Ministry, They represent an “obstacle” both to identifying victims and to prosecuting the crime.
Likewise, the Prosecutor’s Office indicates that Spain, in addition to being a destination for the exploitation of trafficking victims, is used as a transit country to others in the rest of Europe (France, Germany, the Netherlands and Malta, among others).
They are also exploited for labor
The fiscal report highlights that trafficking for sexual exploitation continues to be the main one (73%) and with victims mostly women, although cases of labor exploitation are “emerging” (13.9% of cases), with men as the main victims.
It is an exploitation detected particularly in agriculture and livestock and domestic service, as well as hospitality and catering, cleaning, construction and workshops and massage and aesthetic salons, among other sectors.
