According to an investigation published in 2010 by Spanish newspaper El Pais, complaints denouncing sexual abuse have been lodged since 2010. «Sexually exploiting foreigners who work in strawberry fields is no more a secret», wrote Spanish daily newspaper El Pais in a June 2010 article. The latter voices alleged sexual abuses strawberry pickers, especially Moroccan women, are subjected to in Huelva. In its story, El Pais recalls how «night visits» have turned the lives of these women into hell. «They lifted the sheets and looked at the bodies of naked women laying in their beds and followed them to bathrooms. They were forced to shower while their managers were looking», reported Lidia Jimenez and Jerónimo Andreu who conducted the investigation. The two journalists recalled that «two complaints denouncing sexual abuse were filed against five Spanish employers» by eight Moroccan women aged between 18 and 30 years old. Complaints that according to El Pais had been «still before the Huelva court» in 2010. «For now, strawberry pickers (mainly Moroccan, Romanian and Polish women) who collect 250 000 tons each year have never raised their voices against their bosses and managers», said the same source. «If you want to come back next year, you will have to be good to me». This is what the defendent allegedly whispered in the ears of his victims in a farm called Palos de la Frontera in Moguer. The ones who refused to abide by their rules were sent back to their countries. The first complaits El Pais reports that the first complaint was lodged in 2009 by four Moroccan farm workers against the owner of a farm where they worked, his son and a manager, aged between 30 and 55 years old. «When they refused to do what they asked for, they were forbidden from going to the bathroom and drinking water», says the Spanish newspaper. For the record, the Spanish authorities in Huelva arrested on Friday, 25th of May, a 47-year-old man accused of blackmailing workers into having sex with their managers, says local newspaper Huelva Información. The arrestee, who works as a supervisor in one of the farms in Southern Spain, was released and will be awaiting his trial. According to the same source, the arrest occurred after an investigation was opened on Thursday by the Prosecutor's office in Huelva. In addition to a Buzzfeed News investigation, El Español reported the accounts of seven Moroccan women who were blackmailed into having sex by their managers in Huelva's strawberry farms. Several Moroccan women have reported sexual and labor abuses to the Spanish authorities in the last few weeks, after an investigation by Buzzfeed News revealed the account of women in strawberry fields accusing their manager of raping, sexually assaulting, blackmailing and mistreating them.
