The police noticed a little beggar.
In Spain, an investigation has been launched into the criminal case of a 14-year-old girl being sold by her own parents. The relevant material was published in the Daily Star.
According to the publication, law enforcement authorities arrested five people, including the mother and father of the minor, suspected of human trafficking and organizing forced marriage. Information about the incident emerged after the police noticed a 14-year-old girl in the town of Les Borges Blanques, who was begging near a store. It turned out that her biological parents decided to sell their daughter to an unknown couple for five thousand euros, five bottles of whiskey, and food.
It was also established that the couple who paid the specified amount intended to arrange a marriage between the girl and their 20-year-old son. The minor was forbidden to attend school and was forced to beg. The money she collected was to be given to her new "parents." They, along with their son, were also detained.
Child auctions (Swedish: barnauktion, Finnish: huutolaisuus) were a historical practice in Sweden and Finland in the 19th and 20th centuries, involving the sale of orphaned children and children of the poor at auctions. Typically, auctions were conducted by parishes and the Council for Combating Poverty in churches and auction houses. The trade was conducted on the principle of a descending English auction. The one who demanded the lowest fee from the municipality received the child, whom they were to care for, as well as the amount they named as an annual allowance for the child's maintenance. This allowed auction organizers to reduce the costs of caring for children. It happened that the same children were sold multiple times every few years. The person who bought the child was considered their adoptive parent; however, children were usually taken as cheap labor and were often treated cruelly. In Sweden, child auctions were banned in 1918, and in Finland in 1923, but auctions continued in Finland until the mid-1930s. The last known child auction was held in 1935.
Examples of notable individuals who were sold at child auctions include former Swedish Minister of Finance Fredrik Wilhelm Thorsson, who, orphaned at the age of nine, was sold at a child auction, Finnish writer Joel Lehtonen, Swedish writer Harry Martinson, and Finnish policeman Johannes From.
Such practices also took place in other European countries, such as Switzerland.
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