By nationality, the victims are mainly from Moldova, Romania or Morocco. The Foreigners and Borders Service also reports an increase in fraudulent documentation to enter the country.
The Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) reported 54 victims of human trafficking last year in Portugal, with labor exploitation continuing to have the highest incidence, according to a report released this Thursday.
The report of Immigration, Borders and Asylum (RIFA) 2021, to which Lusa had access, indicates that the SEF flagged 54 victims of human trafficking, five less than in 2020, being the most relevant nationalities the Moldovan (11), Romanian (8) and Moroccan (7).
According to the report, “it is verified in 2021, that regarding the type of exploitation, it is the labor exploitation that continues to have the highest incidence in Portugal.
The Foreigners and Borders Service also recorded 31 crimes of human trafficking last year, out of a total of 627 crimes associated with migratory phenomena, the most significant being the falsification of documents (375) and aiding illegal immigration (101).
REQUESTS FOR PORTUGUESE NATIONALITY DECREASED 21%.
The document also reports that SEF recorded an increase in the detection of document fraud of 21.9% compared to 2020, totaling 401 fraudulent identity, travel and residence documents.
The fraudulent documents were, in their entirety, detected when leaving the country at air border crossings and the most significant nationalities were Albanian (107), Georgian (31), Guinean from Bissau (18), Senegalese (16) and Indian (14).
For the second year in a row, the number of applications for Portuguese nationality decreased, registering a total of 54,288 in 2021, 21% less than in 2020.
SEF issued 64,309 opinions, 63,494 of which were positive and 815 negative.
According to the document, the people who acquired Portuguese nationality the most in 2020 were those from Israel (21,263), Brazil (13,328) and Cape Verde (2,980).
According to the RIFA, last year there was also a 10% increase in the number of passengers checked at air borders, totaling 6,533,549 passengers, and at sea borders, 836,675 people were checked, an increase of 58% over the previous year.
The report states that there was a 27.6% reduction in the number of refusals of entry into Portugal to foreigners who did not meet the legal conditions for admission into the country, with the majority occurring at air border crossings, particularly at Lisbon airport with 1,035 refusals of entry (90%), as the main national destination for international air connections from third countries.
The majority of refusals of entry concerned nationals of Brazil, a total of 984.
