The man will now face charges of human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation. The group had been held on an unseaworthy boat for over six months.
A Portuguese man was arrested on Sunday morning, June 2, in Costa Rica on suspicion of human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation.
According to the Costa Rican press, during the operation the authorities rescued 13 people who had been held by the Portuguese man for more than six months on a boat anchored in Golfito, in the city of Puntarenas.
The Costa Rican authorities had been investigating the case since May, after receiving “confidential information about the alleged conditions in which the people were being held, who were not receiving financial remuneration and were living in conditions of malnutrition and overcrowding”.
After taking several steps to confirm this information, the authorities carried out “an operation to rescue 13 people of various nationalities” this Sunday, including Mexicans, Ecuadorians, Venezuelans, Costa Ricans and even Portuguese.
During the police action, the authorities said, a cell phone was seized from the suspect, as well as various items of evidence, and photographs were taken showing the poor conditions in which the victims had been living since last November.
The Portuguese man will, in the meantime, be brought before a court for first questioning in order to find out the appropriate coercive measures.
