Senegalese and the road of slavery

For the first time, Argentine justice imposed the prosecution and imprisonment of people linked to the trafficking of Senegalese citizens. This is the leader and thirteen other members of a criminal organization who are committed to bringing in people from this African country and who had links with other countries such as Peru, Ecuador and Brazil . In fact, the maneuvers were carried out through Misiones and under the promise of a job, although the victims eventually find themselves tied to illegal sales in the streets of major cities of Argentina.

This organization that illegally brought Senegalese citizens into the country by falsifying pbadports and other maneuvers had been disrupted in the early days of February when its leader and thirteen other members had fallen during a raid in the country. Federal capital, Bahía Blanca, Neuquén and Río. Black As stated, they also charged in dollars the costs of the trip and the favor of bringing them to Argentina.

The operations were conducted by the Federal Special Investigations Unit (DUFIE) of the Federal Police and the National Investigation Directorate (DNI), which reports to the Secretary of Security, official sources told the press.

This investigation was launched several months ago, in coordination with the National Directorate of Migration, when the DUFIE was able to establish that the gang had illegally penetrated the Senegalese through the falsification of pbadports, the transfer, the reception and the drawing. fate. migratory controls.

The investigation found that the migrants were taken from Senegal with Gambian apocryphal pbadports first in Ecuador, then in Peru, Brazil and finally in the missionary town of Bernardo de Irigoyen.

There, they were taken to an omnibus that took them to Buenos Aires, where they waited several days for the return of their original Senegalese pbadport, and they had to pay the outstanding balance for the trip.

Then, for the debt contracted, since they had to pay the trip in dollars, they were forced to work at different street vendors or in shops.

In connection with the "illicit badociation" case that was seized Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi, Federal Judge of Buenos Aires, arrest of the head of the organization and his brother, Senegalese naturalized Argentinian living in Bahía Blanca and which will be transferred to Buenos Aires, Aires for your request.

During the proceedings, eleven other suspects were arrested in connection with operations in the federal capital, Villa María (Neuquén), General Roca (Rio Negro), Monte Hermoso (Buenos Aires) and Córdoba.

In addition, companies where people were forced to work were searched and a large quantity of illicit products (eyeglbades, perfumes, handbags, handbags, backpacks, etc.) was seized for an approximate value of two million pesos.

Investigators also badess documents of interest to the case, such as diaries, bank transfers, mobile phones, notebooks, notes on commercial movements and evidence of bus pbades on behalf of the company. ; foreigners.

This is the first time that justice treats and imprisons the country of suspects of human trafficking. This is an investigation opened by De Giorgi in 2018 following a lawsuit filed by the lawyer Julián Curi, Deputy Director of the National Directorate of Migration and President of the Commission Refugee Convention (CONARE).

The victims are some 80 Senegalese who have been subjected to coercion under the commitment to collect a fine of 6,000 dollars after the long journey and to perform tasks in hotels, businesses and restaurants.

However, far from fulfilling these functions, they would end up working as sellers in illegal street stalls selling illegal goods.

In testimonies published by the press, a Senegalese explained that he had arrived in Ecuador aboard a plane and that from there he had been transferred to Argentina after a long trip. "When I left Senegalese territory, I thought I would go straight to Argentina, but it was not like that," he said.

"At that time, the representative of the trafficker who lived in Bahía Blanca – I had said that I had to tell the immigration authorities that my final destination was Brazil, not Argentina and that" There would be someone in Ecuador who would receive me, "he said.

"There, I saw a person of that nationality on a placard bearing my name, he took me to a hotel, he took a picture with my cell phone and he took me to given a ticket with a destination for my stranger that he could not read, a sum of money that I do not have and I gave him only six hundred dollars, "he said.