POLICE in northern Spain have made five arrests over the alleged sale of a 14-year-old girl for €5,000 and several bottles of whisky.
Officers from the Guardia Civil and the Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested the girl’s parents, both aged 35, alongside the alleged buyers, aged 40 and 42 respectively, and their 20-year-old son, who was set to marry the young girl.
According to investigators, the deal took place according to a Romani cultural ritual that has no validity under Spanish law.
The girl’s parents, from Corella, Navarra, agreed to sell their daughter to marry her off to an unknown man.
In return, they received €5,000, five bottles of whisky and some food from a couple in Lleida, Catalunya.
There, the young girl ‘remained under the control of the purchasing family for the purpose of consummating the forced marriage’, according to police.
She did not attend school and was forced to beg for money by the family.
The case came to light in October when officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra found the girl begging outside a local supermarket in Les Borges Blanques, western Catalunya.
She has since been placed in a protection centre while the five detainees have been charged with human trafficking and forced marriage.
Police have also not ruled out adding an additional charge of sexual assault or sexual exploitation.
The suspects have been released pending further investigation.
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I can’t help feeling that this case resonates with practices in the Middle East and N. Africa.