Another success in the combat against Trafficking in Human Beings thanks to the excellent co-operation between Dutch and Hungarian authorities. On July 1st, a Court in the Netherlands sentenced a 44-year-old Hungarian citizen to a prison term of 4 year. The man from the Hungarian city of Szeged has been convicted for exploiting 3 prostitutes.
The victims are women from Hungary who worked as prostitutes in the cities of Utrecht, Groningen, The Hague and Alkmaar. The women indicated that they are not victims of human trafficking. They stated that they have borrowed the man money, that they voluntarily worked as prostitutes, and that they had no pimp. During the trial, however, the Public Prosecutor concluded that the women clearly were victims of human trafficking. The Prosecutor therefore requested an unconditional prison term of 5 years.
Misunderstanding
It is a misconception that women who are in prostitution in the Netherlands are not victims of trafficking when they know in advance that they come to the Netherlands for this work. Central to a trafficking in human beings case is that the victim is limited in her choice or her free will. This criminal case involved violence, deception and abuse of the vulnerable position of women, which became obvious from wire taps by the Police in the course of their investigation. During one of the calls, the trafficker scolded one of his victims in an extreme way and shouted that "I'll kill you if you do not have 300 Euros by tonight; I will kill you.'' 'He threatened and controlled the women, gave them instructions and took their money’, the prosecutor stated. He concluded that ‘this man deliberately chose to submit women to exploitation and deliberately benefited from the money these women earned as prostitutes.’