Hungarians’ greatest fears revealed
Hungarians see human trafficking as a bigger problem than the coronavirus pandemic, and they anticipate that the number of people exploited by traffickers growing in the coming years, according to a recent survey by the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
According to the representative survey conducted in the summer of 2022 by IOM Hungary, the Trauma Centre and the National Police Headquarters, 20 percent of Hungarians have knowledge of a case of human trafficking in their immediate surroundings. Among young people with only elementary education, the group most vulnerable to trafficking, that number was 28 percent, IOM said.
The most vulnerable group listed sexual exploitation as the third largest problem after economic issues and cost-of-living problems. Work exploitation was fifth on their list.
Among the whole population, human trafficking was considered a more pressing problem than the war in Ukraine, the Covid pandemic, migration, housing and education, IOM said. Fully 48 percent of respondents said they expected the number of victims to grow in the coming years.
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The survey also probed people’s knowledge of the types of exploitation and forms of recruiting. Most respondents mentioned the trafficking of children, sexual exploitation and organ trade. The smuggling of illegal migrants across borders, which IOM considers people smuggling and not human trafficking, was the fourth most often mentioned.
IOM said only 34 percent of respondents were familiar with the concept of domestic slavery, where the victim is forced to work without pay around the house. Work exploitation, the most frequent form of exploitation in Hungary, was seen as relatively rare.
The survey, conducted in the framework of an anti-trafficking campaign, showed similar results to its 2018 counterpart. In 2022, 39 percent of respondents said the problem did not appear in the media often enough.
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Source: MTI
Sort of demonstrates what Hungarians are exposed to (and not) in the media.
The facts: well worth reading is the World Migration Report: https://publications.iom.int/books/world-migration-report-2022
Other interesting reading: the OECD’s paper titled International Migration Outlook 2022:
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/30fe16d2-en/1/3/8/17/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/30fe16d2-en&_csp_=97175d429ae5e4e04cd3cccbbfc84945&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book
Regarding “irregular entries”, the numbers speak volumes: “In 2021, the number of first asylum applicants decreased by -55.6% to reach around 40. The majority of applicants came from Iran (10), Afghanistan (5) and Ethiopia (5). The largest increase since 2020 concerned nationals of Iran (5). Of the 60 decisions taken in 2021, 67% were positive”.
So, actually – when people apply for asylum (which is their right), a significant number are actually deemed eligible. The thousands of irregular entries just race through our country to go elsewhere (much like the Ukrainians). Who knew, from all the noise our Politicians generally make?