A young woman together with her child was enslaved and forced to beg during nine years. The woman was sold into slavery to a Roma family together with her newborn by her partner, who is the child’s father, IPN reports.

According to the General Police Inspectorate, in the summer of 2004, the victim, who turned of age, was sold to a Roma family from Moldova. On the pretext of employing her in Chisinau municipality, the family transported her together with the child to Russia, where they lodged her at an apartment and forced her to beg on the streets of Moscow and then in Voronej, Ulyanovsk and Nijnii Novgorod.

During this period, the woman had begged and worked for a number of Roma families, being transported to different towns of Russia. At the end of 2013, the victim was forced to register a fictitious marriage with a Roma man. Consequently, the child was taken by this man’s family and used as a guarantee that the woman will continue to beg for them. 

Recently, as a result of the measures taken by the Center for Combating Trafficking in Persons, in concert with the Prosecutor General’s Office and the International Center “La Strada”, the woman and her child were saved. Now they are both in safety. The criminal case over trafficking in human beings was sent to court.