The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have arrested a man for holding his ex-partner captive for at least two weeks in a home in the Besòs neighborhood of Barcelona. The arrest took place on Catania Street this Wednesday around 3:00 PM. The woman was also freed at the time of the arrest and explained that the father of her children had kidnapped her. According to sources consulted by ARA, the victim stated that the man had taken her phone, wouldn't let her leave the house, and had threatened to kill her. Specifically, the Mossos learned of the situation after the woman's current partner filed a police report. The woman even managed to throw a note for help out the window, which was a key clue that allowed the police to free her. The woman's children, whom she had with the arrested man, were also allegedly involved in the captivity.

The Civil Guard arrested a man this Sunday in Sant Antoni de Portmany, Ibiza, as the suspected perpetrator of a gender-based violence attack. The detainee seriously injured his ex-partner, against whom he had a restraining order, as well as the victim's mother and sister, Europa Press reports. Police arrested the assailant at the scene and transported the seriously injured woman to Can Misses Hospital. She was hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) with a head injury. The mother and sister suffered various contusions and required medical attention at the same hospital, but have since been discharged. This afternoon, the victim was transferred to the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Polyclinic, according to island health authorities. The president of the Balearic Islands government, Marga Prohens, has condemned the attack and, in a message on social media, has called for zero tolerance for any form of violence against women. Since 2016, at least six women have been murdered by husbands or ex-partners throughout Spain, a figure that rises to 1,349 if official statistics are compiled since 2003. A study on gender-based violence against women highlights the invisibility of attacks within this group, as specialized resources, which focus more on younger victims, neither detect nor assist them. The normalization of violence, fear, and social and structural barriers explain the low rate of reporting. According to the same report, 45% of older women identified having suffered gender-based violence at some point in their lives, and of these, 15% were victims of former partners and another 10% of their current partner.

The offers on the internet promised stable and well-paid jobs in Spain. And the flight from South America to Barajas airport in Madrid was also supported by the contractor. When they arrived in the State, they discovered that it was all a lie. They were young, poor women in their countries of origin who were looking for a new life with a better future. When they landed, they were informed that this future was to work as prostitutes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They were threatened and coerced: they had no other way out and had accumulated a debt of 4,000 euros (precisely for the flight and the paid trip) that they had to pay with their bodies. Their destiny was to live in a poor apartment, mostly in Barcelona, ​​​​in unsanitary conditions, and sleep crammed on mattresses in a room because the others were used for prostitution.