A person for the price of meat? Human trafficking in Hungary

Sadly, human trafficking is still a pressing issue today. Although Romania has more developed underworld networks, in Hungary, too, people are bought and sold as if they were mere objects.

“They used to buy girls at the price of meat, but now meat has become so expensive that they can get them even cheaper than that. On average, a girl costs between HUF 50,000 and 100,000 (EUR 130-260),”

Ákos Tóth told Szabad Európa.

The war in Ukraine has aggravated the situation

The price is always determined by the situation. However, some people are bought at a price of 50 to 100, 000 forints, while others are given to the pimps by their own families in exchange for a debt. Due to the refugee crisis in Ukraine, the problem has escalated throughout the whole of Europe.

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Ukrainian refugees are in need of protection

According to a source of Szabad Európa, Ukrainian girls who flee their country and have no vision of the future are very easy to be forced into human trafficking. As we can read in the article of Index,

by the beginning of April, more than 378,000 unaccompanied Ukrainian children were in need of protection. Out of them, nearly 100,000 were from orphanages and other state institutions,

said Tatiana Kotlyarenko, Anti-Trafficking Advisor at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

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Pimps and sex workers

“The pimps lurk around the borders to pick up girls to whom they promise everything, money and more, and then they send them to work in Switzerland, Italy or Germany. The pimps have special agreements with the bars. Although I have not come across any specific case, I have heard that the pimps also hit on the refugees. Ukrainian women are beautiful anyway, and they’re easier to pick up than Hungarian girls because the latter are more wary and less in need,”

said the source of Szabad Európa. He also added that the trafficked girls usually start their journey from the parking lot of Keleti Railway Station (Keleti pályaudvar), where minibuses wait for them.

Refugees disappearing after crossing the border

There are reports of children and women disappearing after crossing the border, sometimes accepting a ride or job offer from a person they think is trying to help, writes Index.

“Thousands of children have been left unaccompanied, either because they were evacuated from state care in Ukraine or because they lost their parents or carers in the war,”

said Ben Cardin, Chairman of the US Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe, as Index reported.

“During the massive influx of refugees into Europe in 2015, it is estimated that up to 10,000 children went missing. We cannot let that happen again,”

he added.