Human trafficking encounter hunted down vulnerable Romanian teenagers – police

More than 30 victims have been identified. They lived 25 to a room in unsanitary conditions and were forced to work at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for meager wages.

According to Romanian prosecutors specializing in the fight against organized crime, “the perpetrators’ favorite victims were people from reception centers who were easy to convince and use with false promises.”

“The victims were forced, including through acts of violence, to work physically and psychologically intolerable … and to live in inhumane conditions under constant surveillance.”

They were forced to work, often outside, in the cold, without proper work clothes or protective equipment, they were denied proper food and medical care. Their documents were taken from them to prevent them from fleeing, the authorities added.

The six arrested are from the same family in the town of Sfantu Gheorghe in Romania’s Szeklerland region, which has a large Hungarian community.

Seventy Hungarian police officers took part in early morning raids on Tuesday, seizing documents, vehicles, €100,000 (£83,000) in cash and gold jewelery used by the gang.

In Romania, the police searched three houses in the villages of Ozun and Chilieni.