Prostitution gangs ship women through Portugal

7 September 2004

LISBON – International prostitution rings use Portugal as a port of entry to Spain’s red-light districts, it was reported Tuesday.

Portuguese immigration officials said the cities of Caia and Vilar Formoso, across the border from the Spanish regions of Extremadura and Castilla y Leon, are “frequently used by prostitution rings to bring in women illegally to brothels in Spain,” the Portuguese Diario de Noticias newspaper reported.

The women – mostly from Brazil or Eastern Europe – are made to work in Portuguese brothels for a time and are “later moved to houses of prostitution in Spain,” the daily said.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news