Mother twice sold her child, who was forced to steal and beg in Portugal

“Sandra”, the name she started using when she started a new life, was sold and forced into slave labor, theft and begging. When she was only 10 years old, a Romanian child was sold by her own mother to a man who lived in Ireland. Due to the “trauma” she suffered, she fell into a coma and was eventually returned to her mother.

TO Newspaper, “Sandra” says her mother sold her again, this time to the Portuguese. She took a bus to Portugal, a country she had never known before, and when she arrived in Porto she was forced to marry. “I was only 12 years old and he was also a minor. From that day on, I became a house slave,” she says. J.N.

The child was forced to steal and beg near supermarkets, cook for the whole family, dress and care for children, clean the house, and at night she was repeatedly abused by her husband. In addition, if stealing or begging did not live up to the family’s expectations, they would beat him.

One day, she was brutally attacked by her husband in a cafe, and although “Sandra” did nothing, the cafe owner recorded the attacks and filed a complaint with the GNR. After living in Portugal for five years, a 17-year-old girl was taken away from her family and placed in a shelter and shelter for women who were victims of human trafficking.

This is one of the cases reported by the Human Trafficking Observatory. Between 2019 and 2021, 12 alleged victims were noted, but this number “is neither close nor far from reality,” the report said. DN national coordinator for assistance to victims of human trafficking.

The Port Judicial Police Authority clarifies that the figures are not true because “the victims do not realize that they are victims and do not cooperate with the authorities.”