The European Commission invites law enforcement agencies and NGOs to form a consortium and apply for the open call entitled “New methods to prevent, investigate and mitigate trafficking of human beings and child sexual exploitation – and on the protection of victims”.
Members of a criminal organization operating in Nyíregyháza were arrested by the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Police. The organization forced their victims into prostitution in Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Germany.
Two girls coming from the poor eastern part of Hungary were lured to the city of Győr, then forced into prostitution. The Győr-Moson-Sopron County Chief Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges of qualified felony of trafficking in beings against a man who already knew the victims and invited them to Western Hungary, while a local couple who bought them dirt cheap will face charges of trafficking in human beings and procuring for prostitution.
The Criminal Code, the Act on Minor Offences, the Act on Organized Crime as well as the Child Protection Act were amended with a view to protecting children from sexual exploitation.
A 45-year-old man from the town of Miskolc has been arrested on well-founded suspicion of trafficking in human beings and living on earnings of prostitution. In another case this year, members of a criminal group specializing in brothel prostitution will also face prosecution.
"Joint Action against Trafficking in Human Beings addressing the Culture of Impunity" under the Internal Security Fund – Police of the European Commission has been published and is open until 29 April 2020.
On December 12 and 13, 2019, meetings of the National Anti-Trafficking Coordination Mechanism and the NGO Round Table took place to discuss domestic anti-trafficking activities. Mátyás Hegyaljai, Deputy State Secretary for European Union and International Affairs, National Coordinator of Hungary's Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, reported on actions, experiences, professional developments over the past nearly six months, and also summarized trends, efforts taken and plans for their respective fields.
The Ministry of Interior, in cooperation with the National Institute of Criminology (OKRI), held a training course for police officers, prosecutors and judges in the counties most affected by the phenomenon of human trafficking (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Heves county).
On 19 November 2019, the Crime Prevention Unit of the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Police Headquarters - with the co-ordination of the National Police Headquarters - held a round-table discussion on the shared tasks in the fight against human trafficking.
In the EU, vulnerable women may be offered money to travel abroad to be part of arranged marriages. Once in their new countries, however, they run the risk of being abused and forced into crime. These sham marriages are a form of human trafficking. Without the cross-border understanding and cooperation of different organisations, more victims could find themselves at the mercy of human traffickers.