Woman sold for 425 euros in Hungary

The perpetrators were two men, aged 20 and 60.

On 10 August, the police arrested a 20-year-old man in Dombóvár. Officers took him from the kitchen of the apartment in handcuffs. His alleged partner in crime, aged 60, was also arrested in the same town, reported RTL.

The two men met in March this year, in a parking lot of a store where the drugged woman was sold by the 60-year-old criminal to the younger man. The woman was sold for as little as 150,000 forints, which is 425 euros.

The most shocking and disturbing fact about the case is that the victim could be sold in such a public place. The woman was initially taken to a family house in Nagyhajmás. The man held the victim captive, with the idea to later take her to Italy. His plan was for the woman to work as a prostitute in a foreign country. He told the woman that he would let her go if she paid him the 425 euros she was bought for. Eventually, he let the woman go after a few days.

Both men were charged with human trafficking, and the 20-year-old perpetrator was also charged with kidnapping.

Hungary is usually the initial country or a transit zone for human trafficking, writes the European Commission. The vast majority of victims are forced or lured into prostitution, or perpetrators take advantage of them by making them work. Hungarian citizens are taken to Western European countries, such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom. Hungarian victims tend to be taken from the north-northwestern side of the country, from Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties, or from the southwestern areas, such as Baranya or Tolna county. Dombóvár, the town where the two perpetrators were arrested, is in Tolna county.

People who have a lower level of education, little work experience, an unstable family background, and those who were raised in institutions for orphans and other socially disadvantaged children are particularly vulnerable to become victims of human trafficking.

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Source: RTL, ec.europa.eu