A COUPLE who forced their teenage daughter into a third arranged marriage have been arrested in the province of Córdoba, Andalucía.
National Police heard that the girl was just 12 when she was first married off in her native Romania via a Roma gypsy ceremony.
She was then dumped by her husband and sent home to her parents, who married her off again.
By the time she had been rejected by her second husband and was about to be married to a third, she was 16 years old and had a young son.
She had travelled to Córdoba from Romania with her parents for the third wedding and, once there, made contact with other Romanian gypsy youngsters, who encouraged her to run away from home and tell the police.
The young woman did so, and was taken into safety and she and her son given a full medical check-up.
As she is under 18 and considered a minor, and therefore a child, under Spanish law, it is likely she will be placed in care by the social services.
Police heard that her first husband, when she was 12, was aged 21 and she had never met or spoken to him until their wedding day.
The marriage lasted a few months, and she was swiftly married off to another man of a similar age, when she was barely 13.
Her second marriage, also, only lasted four months before her husband threw her out – at which point she was 13 years old and pregnant with his child.
She was allowed to stay in her family home until after she had had the baby, then she and the infant were taken to Córdoba.
Police managed to stop the third wedding from taking place, and her mother and stepfather were charged with human-trafficking, domestic abuse and child abuse.
National Police set up a free helpline – 900 105 090 – and email address, trata@policia.es, so that anyone who had been trafficked or knew of such a case involving others could report the incident confidentially or anonymously, without fear of reprisal.
