Human trafficking in Hungary

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Hungary ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in December 2006.^[1]

In 2010 Hungary was a source, transit, and destination country for women and girls subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution, and a source country for men and women in conditions of forced labor. Women from Hungary were forced into prostitution in Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and the United States. Women from eastern Hungary were subjected to forced prostitution in Budapest and areas in Hungary along the Austrian border. Roma women and girls who grew up in Hungarian orphanages are highly vulnerable to internal forced prostitution. Men from Western Europe traveled to Budapest for the purpose of adult sex tourism, some of which may have involved the exploitation of trafficking victims. Men and women were subjected to conditions of forced labor within Hungary. Women from Romania and Ukraine were transported through Hungary to the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, and the United Arab Emirates where they were subsequently subjected to forced prostitution; some of these victims may have been exploited in Hungary before they reached their final destination country.^[2]

n 2010 the Government of Hungary did not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it made significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated law enforcement progress in 2009, including amending Paragraph 175/b of its criminal code to increase penalties for cases involving child victims of human trafficking under the age of 12 as well as an increase in the number of traffickers convicted and sentenced to time in prison, though it did not prosecute or convict any labor trafficking offenders. The government demonstrated mixed progress in improving victim assistance during the reporting period; while it allocated funding for a new NGO-run shelter that opened in March 2010 and guaranteed funding through June 2011, the shelter did not assist any victims during the reporting period. Moreover, the shelter is permitted only to assist Hungarian victims, excluding the assistance of any potential foreign victims. The lack of victim assistance funding by the government in 2008 and most of 2009 may have resulted in a decrease in victims assisted in 2009.^[2]

The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2 Watchlist" in 2017.^[3] It was placed at Tier 2 in 2023.^[4]

The 2024 GRETA report noted that 754 victims were identified between 2019 and 2022 (mostly women, but with an increasing number of children); it also noted the new National Anti-Trafficking Strategy and increased access to free legal aid for victims.^[5]