12-year-old girl sold by parents for 3,000 euros for forced marriage, found at last minute

He was heading straight for Romania. Spanish media ABC reports that a young Spanish woman was narrowly rescued by the Guardia Civil this Monday, February 26. Alerted of possible minors (4 children, 1 girl and 3 boys) in the town of Malagon, located 150 km south of Madrid, in late January 2024, Spanish authorities took action earlier this week.

And for good reason, they found out that a 12-year-old girl was sent to Romania for a forced marriage between two Romanian families with a young man, a minor, 16 years old, agreed.

Money found on father-in-law

It was the Guardia Civil from Zuzar, north of Granada, who carried out an operation in a house where the girl was locked up with the family of the young teenager she was to marry. The latter was sold by her mother and stepfather for 3,000 euros and was about to arrive in Eastern Europe. It was the parents who confessed where the girl was hiding after the arrest.

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An investigation carried out with the family and people close to the girl’s school made the arrest possible after her mother indicated that she would no longer return there and was moving to Romania with her grandmother. Around 3,800 euros were found in the father-in-law’s pocket during the arrest.

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The latter tried to explain that the money came from olive harvesting at his job, before investigators shot down his argument. The government of the Castile-La Mancha region condemned the “sexual phenomenon that has no place in a modern and democratic society” and congratulated the Guardia Civil for “stopping this forced marriage”. The girl and her 3 brothers were placed under the responsibility of social services.