A foreign national was arrested for charges of human trafficking in the wider Mesolongi area in western Greece. The suspect was also charged with unlawful detention and violations of the Migration Code. Officers of the region’s Anti-Trafficking and Crime Investigation Unit also identified and are seeking a second foreign national as an accomplice.

A Greek citizen was also arrested and charged with facilitating the stay of foreign nationals lacking travel documents.

According to police, following a report submitted to the human trafficking hotline, officers located 44 foreign nationals hiding in a warehouse in the Mesolongi area, attempting to escape from the suspect and his associates.

The investigation revealed that the arrested suspect had contacted the victims through a social media platform, persuading them to travel from various countries to Greece to work in the orange harvest in Skala Lakonias. He falsely promised accommodation, good wages, and assistance in obtaining legal residency documents.

Once the victims arrived in Greece, the suspect and his accomplices transported them to a warehouse owned by the Greek suspect. Each day, the foreign national and at least three of his compatriots collected the victims, transported them to fields for work, and returned them to the warehouse, where they were locked inside.

The suspect confiscated and kept the victims’ travel documents and informed them that each owed him €1,500 for their transport to Greece and for finding them work. He forced them to work daily to repay this alleged debt.

The second foreign suspect—still at large—is the owner of three vehicles (both trucks and private cars) used to transport the victims to the fields.

The arrested individuals will be brought before the prosecutor of the Aetolia-Acarnania Court of First Instance/Mesolongi Branch. All three vehicles belonging to the second suspect have been seized.