Police in Romania and Hungary say they have broken up a human trafficking ring that convinced vulnerable people, many just out of foster homes, to work in slave-like conditions in Budapest.
For more than a decade, traffickers brought men and women from Romania to the Hungarian capital, promising them relatively high salaries and good housing.
They were instead put to work for little pay, mainly at a waste-recycling plant near Budapest, according to details of the investigation made public on Friday.
Five men and three women were detained as part of the investigation, and most of them come from the same family originally from central Romania, say police.
More than 30 victims have been identified. They lived 25 to a room in unhygienic conditions, and were forced to work at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for minuscule pay.
“The perpetrators’ favourite victims were those coming from foster care centres, who were easily persuaded and exploited by false promises,” according to Romanian prosecutors who specialise in fighting organised crime.
“The victims were forced, including through acts of violence, to work hours that were physically and psychologically unbearable…and to live in inhumane conditions, under permanent surveillance.”
They were forced to work, often outside in the cold, without proper work clothes or protective equipment, and they were denied adequate food and medical care. Their documents were taken to stop them running away, authorities added.
Six of those arrested are from the same family in the town of Sfantu Gheorghe in the Szeklerland in Romania, which is home to a large Hungarian community.
Seventy Hungarian police officers took part in dawn raids on Tuesday, seizing documents, vehicles, €100,000 (£83,000) in cash and gold jewellery used by the gang.
In Romania, three houses were raided by police in the villages of Ozun and Chilieni.