War and human suffering always seem to bring out the worst in humanity, and the flood of women and children fleeing Ukraine ahead of Russian aggressors is raising concerns over how to protect the most vulnerable refugees from being targeted by human traffickers or becoming victims of other forms of exploitation.
The Associated Press is reporting that in Poland, a suspect has been detained over allegedly raping a 19-year-old girl he’d lured with offers of shelter after she fled war-torn Ukraine.
“She escaped from war-torn Ukraine, did not speak Polish. She trusted a man who promised to help and shelter her. Unfortunately, all this turned out to be deceitful manipulation,” police said in a statement on Thursday.
Another man was overheard promising work and a room to a 16-year-old girl before authorities intervened. And in a refugee camp at Poland’s Medyka border, a man raised suspicions after saying he would help only women and children. He changed his story when questioned by authorities.
With literally millions of people fleeing from Ukraine, finding food, and other assistance is paramount to feeling safe again. “When you’ve suddenly got a huge cohort of really vulnerable people who need money and assistance immediately it’s sort of a breeding ground for exploitative situations and sexual exploitation,” Tamara Barnett, director of operations at the Human Trafficking Foundation, told reporters.
“Obviously all the refugees are women and children,” said Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, the UNHCR’s head of global communications, who has visited borders in Romania, Poland, and Moldova.
“You have to worry about any potential risks for trafficking – but also exploitation, and sexual exploitation and abuse. These are the kinds of situations that people like traffickers … look to take advantage of,” she said.
According to UNHCR, more than 2.5 million people, including more than a million children, have already fled war-torn Ukraine in what has become an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Europe and its fastest exodus since World War II.
While the vast majority of people in countries throughout Europe, including the border nations of Romania, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, and Slovakia, are sincere in their humanitarian offers of assistance, which is desperately needed, so too are the risks, notes ABC7ny.com.
The Migration Data Portal notes that humanitarian crises such as those associated with conflicts “can exacerbate pre-existing trafficking trends and give rise to new ones” and that traffickers can thrive on “the inability of families and communities to protect themselves and their children.”
Human trafficking is a grave human rights violation and can involve a wide range of exploitative roles. It is also a very lucrative criminal enterprise. A 2020 human trafficking report by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, estimates the annual global profit from the crime is 29.4 billion euros ($32 billion).
The report goes on to say that sexual exploitation is the most common form of human trafficking in the 27-nation bloc and that nearly three-quarters of all victims are female, with almost every fourth victim a child.
“The people who are leaving Ukraine are under emotional stress, trauma, fear, confusion,” said Cristina Minculescu, a psychologist at Next Steps Romania who provides support to trafficking victims. “It’s not just human trafficking, there is a risk of abduction, rape … their vulnerabilities being exploited in different forms.”
