Galicia | Several refugees denounce the NGO International Rescue for Labor Exploitation and Sexual Aggression – El Salto

Carlos Osorio arrived in Spain as a asylum seeker just over a year ago: “A social worker told me about the International Rescue NGO and told me they were looking for volunteers.” That took, in a short time, to establish contact with CE, director of the organization, which manages the accompaniment of about 2,000 refugees in the state. “There were no staff. There were 300 users for five people,” he recalls. At the beginning of January 2025, Osorio was already on his way to the migrant reception device managed by the organization in Mondariz-Balneario, a small municipality in Pontevedra where he currently resides.

As he explains in conversation with El Salto, shortly after arriving he already joined “making days of ten to twelve hours” as a host technician, Spanish professor or even sports activities monitor. “I did not sign anything, but I receive 50 euros a week (…) another partner was recruited in a foundation asking for food,” he denounces and adds: “This is the profile they are looking for, people in a vulnerable situation, because nobody wants to come to work here.”

Osorio is not the only one who claims to live this situation and has dared to denounce him publicly and in court. A partner, Marcos Tulio, from Salvador, arrived in March at the same center, now located at the Cemar Hotel in Mondariz. “The only thing I have is a ministry document that allows me to be in Spain while I hope to appoint to request international protection, but I cannot work legally.” However, and as he explains in conversation with this writing, he makes host technician tasks, with a schedule that goes from nine in the morning to one in the afternoon. Although he even clarifies: “In times like Ramadan, many more hours work.”

Other volunteers arrived at the reception center after talking with the International Rescue Director and signing a volunteer agreement. The document, to which this medium has had access, stipulates that the volunteer “will collaborate in a selfless and altruistic way with the entity.” According to Osorio, Tulio and other asylum seekers who prefer to preserve anonymity, they work from two in the afternoon to ten o’clock at night five days a week “in exchange for 50 euros per week.” “We do everything, we support the host technicians in everything,” they say.

Within the state reception program, the International Rescue NGO is responsible for the management of several international protection centers in Spain. This organization manages about 1,700 places throughout the country, of which approximately 1,400 are located in Galicia. A month ago, this newspaper uncovered a series of irregularities that included staff cuts, inadmissible layoffs and lack of basic resources in the reception devices managed by the organization.

According to an international rescue worker, who has spoken with this medium under condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, many irregular administrative migrants “supply the hiring of other professionals in exchange for a pocket help of 50 euros per week.” “labor personal lack in all international protection centers, when it is mandatory for lawyers and psychologists,” he says.

In February of this year, the Municipal government of Mondariz-Balneario directed a letter to the Ombudsman and the Government Delegation in Galicia to denounce the situation in which the 300 migrants received at the device facilities were located. The document, to which the jump had access, warned about the lack of health and psychological personnel, and also pointed out “episodes of denigrating treatment towards the reception.” He also described the food and hygiene conditions as “insufficient.”

We have been able to conduct this research thanks to the more than 10,000 people who support us. If you value this work, Help us continue doing journalism and get partner of El Salto.

The International Rescue NGO is part of the set of third sector entities that collaborate with the public administration in the management of the international and temporal protection reception system (COW). Within this framework, the organization manages resources funded by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, directed by Elma Saiz Delgado.

“Many days is only given pasta or rice, there is never chicken or veal.” The kitchen staff, who has spoken with this medium as anonymity, affirms that he is “working in an irregular situation.” As they report, they also serve the dining room of the Marcote Mondariz bilingual school – located in the complex – although the menu is different.

The NGO director recognizes in an audio that the government leaked the complaint

In April, several volunteers went to the Civil Guard of Ponteareas to file complaints against the International Rescue NGO for alleged labor exploitation. Among them, Carlos Osorio. In the complaint, which has been able to access the jump, Osorio affirms that “he has no established schedule” for his volunteer work and, despite not having signed any contract, “charges weekly in hand 50 euros”, for which he signs “I received from which he receives no copy.”

This complaint also states that the hotel staff can “be immersed in a similar situation of labor exploitation, when working without a contract and under the threat of not being able to legalize their stay or residence in the country” and indicates that they would be “at least six people who work in the hotel cuisine” in the same situation.

But in the shadows of international rescue management there are not only complaints of labor exploitation. Another of the organization’s volunteers attended the Civil Guard to file a complaint for sexual assault. In the document, which has also been sent to this writing, the victim explains that a coordinator “touches her left shoulder” so that “he massaged the same towards the height of the neck, inviting him to relax, that he was very tense, that if it was his desire he invited him to dinner.” He also told him, always according to the complaint, “that he could help him get the papers in Spain, proceeding to lower his hand outside the complainant’s shirt to caress his chest.”

In a conversation with El Salto, CE has admitted that they have informed him about the existence of complaints in the Civil Guard. On the other hand, he states that there are currently 28 volunteers in Galicia, but denies that people in irregular situation are doing structural work within the NGO, claiming that they “receive money to compensate for the expenses incurred by their volunteer.”

According to Carlos Osorio, on Friday, April 25, the Civil Guard appeared on the reception device: “They appeared as a judicial police, with a labor inspection; and they made a statement to all the people who were working.” Subsequently, according to reports, volunteers are called to a meeting with AM, coordinator of the centers in Galicia. “Until now you are doing, this is scanned (…) you receive weekly. The 100 euros weekly and 50 week,” he says in an audio to which the leap has also had access. “The inspection has been a surprise for the entire team (…) We are aware that there has been a bad praxis.”

The NGO director reveals in an audio the filtration of complaints: “This has not written it to me, it has written it to the Government delegate in Galicia”

The NGO director appeared in the Pontevedrés municipality one day after the Labor Inspection in the Center. “After the arrival of the Poli here (…) we have some contacts (…) Someone has told us, not officially, that there was a complaint to the NGO in a Galicia police station, which is some of you.” This is how volunteers are addressed to inquire about complaints in the audios analyzed by this means. “This has been told by the Civil Guard (…) and I do not lie to me the civil guard.” Subsequently, he clarifies that the filtration comes from above: “This has not written it to me, it has written it to the Government delegate in Galicia.”

This media has contacted the Government Delegation in Galicia to request an assessment of the alleged leak of the complaints, but has not obtained an answer until the moment of the publication of this article.

Several volunteers have filed a complaints before the Provincial Labor and Social Security Inspection of Pontevedra. In the documents, to which this newspaper has had access, they allege “abandonment, harassment and labor exploitation”, as well as “violation of basic rights” and request legal protection against possible reprisals by the NGO.

As they claim, the director of the organization, CE, continues in Mondariz-Balneario and “says that it will not leave until the problem is solved.” Meanwhile, uncertainty has been installed among the volunteers of the reception center. No one has officially informed them of what will happen after the Labor Inspection or if measures will be taken against the complaints filed. “The police have not yet called anyone to testify or have done absolutely nothing,” they say.