File photo.
A crackdown intended to locate and free sex trafficking victims in Athens has led to the arrest of seven women for allegedly reopening brothels that had been ordered to shut and breaching immigration laws, police said Friday.
A police statement said the operation was carried out Thursday in central Athens and the capital’s Kallithea district, in conjunction with Our Rescue, a global non-profit group that fights human trafficking and child exploitation.
Police said officers found that three brothels that had been shut down by municipal authorities for unspecified infringements were found to have been illegally reopened. They will now be closed down once again.
Seven women face charges of breaching seals affixed by authorities to the brothels’ doors when they were shut down, and for alleged immigration offences, while police confiscated €1,535 found on the premises.
