According to the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), the man, of undisclosed foreign nationality, was detected at border control in possession of alien documents, belonging to a child under 15, who days earlier had been detected by SEF in the international airport.

The child said he was enticed by the man, on the streets of Luanda, to travel to Europe. During the trip to Portugal, the man will have kept the minor's documents and informed him that from Lisbon they would proceed to Cape Verde, where he would be guarded by a group that would wait for him in a hotel in the city of Praia, where they already had a reservation, said SEF.

The minor, who arrived in national territory, ended up fleeing the accused, hiding in the international area of ??Humberto Delgado Airport, where he ended up being found by SEF, undocumented.

The child was handed over to the Family and Child Court and is now installed in a safe home for minors who are flagged as victims of trafficking.

This detection took place during Operation Bambini 2, carried out by the SEF's Central Investigation Directorate, “which aimed to systematically and thoroughly check the documentary situation of all minors, from certain origins. With this action, the SEF sought to ascertain more precisely the volume of situations of document fraud and aid to illegal immigration that may be linked to trafficking in persons, in this case minors,” said the police.

The operation took place from 24 to 28 February, at Humberto Delgado Airport, and was attended by 25 inspectors, who identified 1,335 foreign citizens, 177 of whom were minors.

It was also possible to “test mobile control equipment that allows, quickly and safely, to detect and confirm any indication that appears in national and international databases, in any place other than just the first border control line”.