Nagpur Woman Trafficked to Portugal After Job Fraud

A 28-year-old commerce graduate from Nagpur was allegedly trafficked to Portugal and sold to a beer shop owner for forced labor after a Pune-based job consultancy promised her a high-paying cashier position abroad, according to police and crime branch reports from August 2026.

The Promise of a High-Paying Overseas Career

The ordeal began on social media when the 28-year-old victim came across a job consultancy named ‘We Migrate’ on Instagram. The agency operators claimed a 100% success rate and assured the Nagpur native that lucrative positions were available for cashiers, accountants, and workers across European destinations including Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, and Poland.

In December of last year, the woman contacted the agency after finding them online, and she was subsequently asked to come to Pune in February 2026. The woman running the firm demanded Rs 8 lakh for herself, while an additional Rs 3 lakh was extracted toward visa, stay, and insurance charges. To secure the paperwork and administrative formalities, the victim prematurely closed fixed deposits belonging to her husband and in-laws, ultimately transferring Rs 8 lakh directly to the accused alongside other installments totaling around Rs 11 lakh.

Hostage in Portugal and Forced Labor

Following the completion of the visa formalities, the woman landed in Madrid on May 21, 2026, before being transported into Portugal by road. She remained in Portugal from May 22 to June 30. Upon arrival, a local man intercepted her, locked her in a room, and confiscated her passport alongside his accomplices, holding her hostage in a room for two days while demanding an additional Rs 40,000 merely to return her travel documents.

Instead of the promised supermarket cashier role, the victim was delivered to a beer shop where she faced grueling hours as conservancy staff, working daily from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. under severe physical and mental torture. When she protested the assignment and asked the fraudsters to return her passport, her captors demanded more money. An officer from the Airport police detailed the situation to reporters:

“She was told that she would work as a cashier in a supermarket, but was instead sent to a beer shop, where she was forced to do cleaning work. When she complained about it, the man told her that she had been sold to the beer shop owner and would have to follow his instructions. She was also told that the Pune-based consultancy had sold her to them,”
An officer from Airport police

After enduring nearly a month of captivity and forced labor, the victim managed an escape plan by staying until June 29, when she fled to Lisbon by bus and then traveled onward to Madrid. From Madrid, she flew to Doha and finally returned to India, landing in New Delhi.

Extortion Threats and Police Investigation

The return to India did not end the harassment. As reported by NDTV, the firm continued sending emails demanding another Rs 3 lakh under the pretext of arranging a job in Malta. When she refused, the accused began threatening to kill her husband, harm him, or implicate him in a false molestation case.

Frustrated by the ongoing extortion and threats, the woman approached the Pune crime branch nearly a month after returning home. Authorities registered a formal case earlier this week against eight individuals, including the operators of ‘We Migrate’. The charges filed against the accused fall under sections 308 (extortion), 143 (trafficking of a person), 127 (wrongful confinement), 316 (criminal breach of trust), and 318 (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Police officials confirmed that the case was transferred to the Pune crime branch, and an active search for the suspects is underway.