Two buses arrived in Moguer, Huelva, on Friday with 90 Polish nationals on board, the passengers expecting to be employed during the strawberry harvest.
The passengers had been recruited by an intermediary company and offered pre-contracts for the strawberry picking season in Huelva. Many had paid out money in advance for the documents and the trip, a 50 hour journey through half of Europe.
However, all the documentation turned out to be false, the workers having been the subject of a scam.
The Mayor of Moguer, Juan José Volante, arranged for the unfortunate fraud victims to stay at the Municipal Sports Centre where they were provided with food and drink and could shower and rest while efforts were made to try and sort out the situation.
The Polish Embassy agreed to take the 90 people but only once they had arrived in Madrid. The transportation company which had brought the Poles to Spain refused to make the trip to Madrid unless they were guaranteed payment of fuel costs for the two buses.
In the end, Moguer Council decided to foot the fuel bill so that the situation could be resolved in the shortest possible time and without causing further distress to the Poles. The return journey began at 05:00 on Saturday morning.