The Civil Guard has dismantled one of the many organizations seeking to profit financially from the suffering of migrants. Seven people have been arrested in Barcelona and its metropolitan area for charging foreigners up to 15,000 euros in exchange for help obtaining a residence permit. The criminal group looked for fictitious unmarried couples and prepared false registration documents to attract immigrants without documents could ask, presumably with greater guarantees of obtaining it, for permission to live legally in Spain.
Seven members of the group were arrested in Barcelona, Castelldefels and Badalona, while ten others are under investigation. The judge investigating the case charges them with the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, aiding and abetting irregular immigration, falsification of documents, usurpation of civil status and money laundering.
The investigation began at the end of last year, when an increase in the number of unmarried couples with suspected irregularities was detected in the province of Barcelona. The group recruited migrants in vulnerable situations and offered them alleged unmarried couples as a way to apply for a residence permit. The detainees falsified documents or usurped the identities of women resident in Spain.
The organization was also responsible for housing migrants in unhealthy places, including closets and very small spaces where small beds or sofas were installed, according to images distributed by the Guardia Civil. The group, claims the statement released on Sunday, “has exposed foreigners to an extremely precarious situation”. The objective was to regularize, in exchange for money, the situation of these foreigners both in Spain and in European countries (Germany, France or Belgium), according to the documentation in the possession of the investigators.
