Sziget 2015 – Human trafficking “horrific crime”, says US envoy

Budapest (MTI) – Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery, a “horrific crime” which the United States along with its partners like Hungary wants to root out, Colleen Bell, the US ambassador to Hungary, said on Thursday.

Hungary must meet huge challenges due to the rising number of immigrants and asylum-seekers in the country, Bell told a roundtable organised on the subject by Hungary’s Interior Ministry at the Sziget Festival. This invests it with greater responsibility in the fight against human trafficking, too, she added. Bell said she felt deeply about the problem in light of her own activities in groups that helped victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Gajus Scheltema, the Dutch ambassador, said he hoped Hungarian legislation would “evolve to be a stronger weapon against human trafficking”. At the same time he called on the Hungarian government to assist migrants and “make sure they get a decent place here while they are being registered before they move on”.

Mission representatives of the Netherlands, Austria, Britain, Belgium and Switzerland noted that their countries were cooperating with the Hungarian state and civil groups to control human trafficking and to help their victims.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters