The Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) announced today that it identified fifty illegal foreigners working in Vilamoura, mostly women who worked in dubious premises.
The SEF said its surveillance operation to combat illegal immigration was undertaken with the Loulé GNR and focussed on two nightlife establishments in Vilamoura.
During the raids the SEF also nabbed the landlords for using foreign nationals illegally, the fine for this alone is between €2,000 and €10,000.
The SEF arrested a foreigner for forgery, and two people who had been expelled from the country but had reappeared. During the operation three other foreigners were given their marching orders to leave the country on pain of arrest.
Nine others, because they were working illegally, were told to leave the country of their own accord, and not to come back.
Meanwhile in the Alentejo dozens of Romanian immigrants have been relased from economic slavery having been tricked into coming to Portugal to work.
The PJ arrested three Romanians suspected of bringing 60 of their countrymen to Portugal to pick olives. The workers were promised €30 a day but they did not get paid and ended up living in sub-human conditions, and also were starving.
The work team arrived on November 1st with high hopes of earning a daily €30 in cash for helping with the olive harvest in several farms around Serpa and Mértola in the Alentejo.
Days later the Romanians went to the GNR to complaint about their three compatriots who were later arrested and are currently being questioned in Serpa.
The three men arrested are aged between 22 and 33 years old and the oldest is married to a Portuguese woman and has lived in Portugal for several years. All are accused of human trafficking.
