Austria Ten years imprisonment for Bulgarian begging mafia couple

September 25, 2009

Comment: The article is a court report of a case involving a Bulgarian couple who trafficked and exploited two Bulgarian girls in Vienna, one 13, the other 20, the older being mentally disabled. The girls were lured to Austria with the promise of work, then forced to beg in Vienna and were physically and sexually abused. They were supposed to raise 200 euros per day, which was impossible. They finally fled to the Bulgarian Embassy. The couple stood trial in Vienna and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The judge understood the extraordinary inhumanity of the perpetrators and wanted to give a cautionary sentence.

The article provides all the gory details of the case and points out the appalling phenomenon of modern-day-slavery, but does not provide any background to the case about the situation of child beggars in Vienna or the social background of child victims of trafficking. It also mentions that the apartment used by the traffickers was known to authorities as a place of the South-East European trafficking gangs – but there is no mention what steps authorities have taken to bring them to justice before. On the other hand the article protects the identity of the victims and does not use any names.

The original article can be read in German here.