n March 13, Dorothea Czarnecki, former Deputy Executive Director of ECPAT International, a global network of civil society organizations that works to end the sexual exploitation of children, stepped onto the platform of Berlin’s bustling main railway station. Having just returned to Berlin after a short break away, she told me how, stumbling upon a group of Ukrainian refugees, she decided to offer her apartment for the night. Standing with her luggage, she waited for the next train from Poland to arrive. As exhausted Ukrainians disembarked–some having traveled for two days–she approached an older mother and her teenaged son. They readily accepted her offer of a bed and a hot shower. That night, they showed Dorothea pictures of their former home with a large garden, resplendent with cherry trees and raspberries. They are now reduced to carrying what remains of their possessions in two large backpacks. The next morning, my friend drove them to the airport from whence the duo flew to Istanbul where the woman’s daughter was waiting.
The mother and son are among the lucky ones. Stories of trafficked and sexually assaulted Ukrainian women, and unaccompanied children who have gone missing, abound. On March 8, 2022, World Vision announced the results of its survey in Romania wherein 97% of the respondents had heard of instances of human trafficking vis-à-vis the ongoing war in Ukraine, with 53% believing that women are most at risk. When asked how they would describe human trafficking: 72% highlighted prostitution, 67% said being kidnapped, while 65% mentioned being bought or sold.
Human Trafficking before the Russian Invasion
A 2020 European Commission report estimates the annual global profit from the crime is €29.4 billion ($32 billion). In the European Union, sexual exploitation is the most common form of human trafficking; nearly three-quarters of all victims are female, with every fourth victim a child.
Even before the war, Ukrainians have been major targets of human trafficking. More than 260,000 Ukrainians were trafficking victims over the last 30 years. The International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Ukraine Counter-Trafficking Program has identified and assisted approximately 16,000 victims through the 19 years of the program’s existence. Since the onset of COVID-19, pandemic-related movement restrictions and border closures have resulted in traffickers exploiting a larger number of Ukrainians for labor trafficking within the country’s borders, and in online commercial sex. According to the US State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons report, since the conflict in Crimea broke out in 2014, the profile of Ukrainian trafficking victims has shifted to include more urban, younger and male victims, forced into labor including crimes such as drug trafficking.
The difference since the invasion of Ukraine is that traffickers’ access to potential victims has increased exponentially, with 3 million Ukrainians–including more than 1 million children–having fled the country. To the detriment of the Ukrainian women and children fleeing the war, there is already a robust infrastructure for trafficking Ukrainian victims both to neighboring states and further afield.
“Traffickers do not comprise only criminal gangs who may be professional and well-financed. They are also among us; the individuals you may see holding a placard at the receiving points for refugees,” said Czarnecki. Dr. Ortrun Merkle, a post-doctoral researcher working on corruption, gender and migration at UNU-MERIT, United Nations University, agrees: “Traffickers are exploiting this war and profiting immensely from it. It is utter chaos right now. There needs to be better coordination and child protection structures in place to prevent trafficking.”
How to Stop Trafficking
With the mass exodus of Ukrainians in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion, governments across Europe have scrambled to provide information and resources. Czarnecki described the initial days in Germany’s capital: “Even before the Senatsverwaltung (Berlin state’s administration) could respond, volunteers were essentially running the show.”
Activists I have spoken to on the ground highlighted that one of the main obstacles facing refugees is a lack of coordination at land border crossings and at facilities where they are received. Those travelling alone, who do not understand the local language, and/or have no local networks, face additional challenges on top of the trauma they are facing from having witnessed the brutalities of war. While there are many volunteers who truly intend to help, it is not difficult for traffickers to slip among their midst so long as there are no registration and/or vetting processes.
I spoke with Anastasiya Dzyakava, the former Adviser on Child Online Safety in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine. She said that there needs to be more information for refugees leaving Ukraine on their rights and entitlements in the destination countries, as well as on trusted and verified services that are available, and how to access them. Czarnecki highlighted the urgency of registering the national identification documents and/or registration plates of vehicles of those who have offered to help the Ukrainian refugees.
“Governments in Europe already have existing protocol on how to deal with emergency situations, what human trafficking looks like and which hotlines to call,” Czarnecki pointed out. “These need to be resurfaced, and quickly.”
Government could also take a leaf from the example of the Polish government to make the crime of trafficking more punitive. On March 8, 2022, in response to rising concerns regarding human trafficking, the government of Poland introduced amendments to a newly passed bill, raising the minimum sentence for human trafficking from three to 10 years, and the maximum prison sentence for sex trafficking of young people from 10 to 25 years.
How You can Help
If you are a private citizen intending to help in volunteer efforts and come across a child who is alone, kindly note the following guidelines, adapted from UNICEF:
- Do not immediately assume that the child is lost. Verify that she is unaccompanied or has been separated from her family. Ask refugees in the immediate vicinity if they know her.
- At any point, never leave the child alone. Do not, under any circumstance, leave the child with another volunteer, whom you do not know.
- After having taken the first step and you are now certain the child is unaccompanied or has been separated from her family, ask the child for her name, age and hometown, and information about her family. If the child is unable to provide this information, ask other refugees in the vicinity what they know.
- Keep the child’s clothes and belongings with her at all times. These might help authorities trace her family.
- Contact a trusted authority such as the local municipality government, border police, Ukraine’s embassy/consulate in the host country, and/or officials from UNICEF. Share the child’s information and location, and follow the authority’s instructions. Do not leave the child.
- Do not share information about the child with anyone else, aside from the authorities.
- Explain to the child what will happen next. Do not promise that you will find her family members. This could cause confusion and distress if you need to hand her over into the hands of a trusted authority or a child protection officer.
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How to Stop Human Traffickers from Exploiting the War in Ukraine
Illustration via Adobe Stock.
March 18, 2022
In every war there are opportunists. With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, refugees are at heightened risk of becoming victims of human trafficking by those who would take advantage of their vulnerability and confusion, but there are ways to help, writes Eirliani Abdul Rahman.
O
n March 13, Dorothea Czarnecki, former Deputy Executive Director of ECPAT International, a global network of civil society organizations that works to end the sexual exploitation of children, stepped onto the platform of Berlin’s bustling main railway station. Having just returned to Berlin after a short break away, she told me how, stumbling upon a group of Ukrainian refugees, she decided to offer her apartment for the night. Standing with her luggage, she waited for the next train from Poland to arrive. As exhausted Ukrainians disembarked–some having traveled for two days–she approached an older mother and her teenaged son. They readily accepted her offer of a bed and a hot shower. That night, they showed Dorothea pictures of their former home with a large garden, resplendent with cherry trees and raspberries. They are now reduced to carrying what remains of their possessions in two large backpacks. The next morning, my friend drove them to the airport from whence the duo flew to Istanbul where the woman’s daughter was waiting.
The mother and son are among the lucky ones. Stories of trafficked and sexually assaulted Ukrainian women, and unaccompanied children who have gone missing, abound. On March 8, 2022, World Vision announced the results of its survey in Romania wherein 97% of the respondents had heard of instances of human trafficking vis-à-vis the ongoing war in Ukraine, with 53% believing that women are most at risk. When asked how they would describe human trafficking: 72% highlighted prostitution, 67% said being kidnapped, while 65% mentioned being bought or sold.
Human Trafficking before the Russian Invasion
A 2020 European Commission report estimates the annual global profit from the crime is €29.4 billion ($32 billion). In the European Union, sexual exploitation is the most common form of human trafficking; nearly three-quarters of all victims are female, with every fourth victim a child.
Even before the war, Ukrainians have been major targets of human trafficking. More than 260,000 Ukrainians were trafficking victims over the last 30 years. The International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Ukraine Counter-Trafficking Program has identified and assisted approximately 16,000 victims through the 19 years of the program’s existence. Since the onset of COVID-19, pandemic-related movement restrictions and border closures have resulted in traffickers exploiting a larger number of Ukrainians for labor trafficking within the country’s borders, and in online commercial sex. According to the US State Department’s 2021 Trafficking in Persons report, since the conflict in Crimea broke out in 2014, the profile of Ukrainian trafficking victims has shifted to include more urban, younger and male victims, forced into labor including crimes such as drug trafficking.
The difference since the invasion of Ukraine is that traffickers’ access to potential victims has increased exponentially, with 3 million Ukrainians–including more than 1 million children–having fled the country. To the detriment of the Ukrainian women and children fleeing the war, there is already a robust infrastructure for trafficking Ukrainian victims both to neighboring states and further afield.
“Traffickers do not comprise only criminal gangs who may be professional and well-financed. They are also among us; the individuals you may see holding a placard at the receiving points for refugees,” said Czarnecki. Dr. Ortrun Merkle, a post-doctoral researcher working on corruption, gender and migration at UNU-MERIT, United Nations University, agrees: “Traffickers are exploiting this war and profiting immensely from it. It is utter chaos right now. There needs to be better coordination and child protection structures in place to prevent trafficking.”
How to Stop Trafficking
With the mass exodus of Ukrainians in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion, governments across Europe have scrambled to provide information and resources. Czarnecki described the initial days in Germany’s capital: “Even before the Senatsverwaltung (Berlin state’s administration) could respond, volunteers were essentially running the show.”
Activists I have spoken to on the ground highlighted that one of the main obstacles facing refugees is a lack of coordination at land border crossings and at facilities where they are received. Those travelling alone, who do not understand the local language, and/or have no local networks, face additional challenges on top of the trauma they are facing from having witnessed the brutalities of war. While there are many volunteers who truly intend to help, it is not difficult for traffickers to slip among their midst so long as there are no registration and/or vetting processes.
I spoke with Anastasiya Dzyakava, the former Adviser on Child Online Safety in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine. She said that there needs to be more information for refugees leaving Ukraine on their rights and entitlements in the destination countries, as well as on trusted and verified services that are available, and how to access them. Czarnecki highlighted the urgency of registering the national identification documents and/or registration plates of vehicles of those who have offered to help the Ukrainian refugees.
“Governments in Europe already have existing protocol on how to deal with emergency situations, what human trafficking looks like and which hotlines to call,” Czarnecki pointed out. “These need to be resurfaced, and quickly.”
Government could also take a leaf from the example of the Polish government to make the crime of trafficking more punitive. On March 8, 2022, in response to rising concerns regarding human trafficking, the government of Poland introduced amendments to a newly passed bill, raising the minimum sentence for human trafficking from three to 10 years, and the maximum prison sentence for sex trafficking of young people from 10 to 25 years.
How You can Help
If you are a private citizen intending to help in volunteer efforts and come across a child who is alone, kindly note the following guidelines, adapted from UNICEF:
- Do not immediately assume that the child is lost. Verify that she is unaccompanied or has been separated from her family. Ask refugees in the immediate vicinity if they know her.
- At any point, never leave the child alone. Do not, under any circumstance, leave the child with another volunteer, whom you do not know.
- After having taken the first step and you are now certain the child is unaccompanied or has been separated from her family, ask the child for her name, age and hometown, and information about her family. If the child is unable to provide this information, ask other refugees in the vicinity what they know.
- Keep the child’s clothes and belongings with her at all times. These might help authorities trace her family.
- Contact a trusted authority such as the local municipality government, border police, Ukraine’s embassy/consulate in the host country, and/or officials from UNICEF. Share the child’s information and location, and follow the authority’s instructions. Do not leave the child.
- Do not share information about the child with anyone else, aside from the authorities.
- Explain to the child what will happen next. Do not promise that you will find her family members. This could cause confusion and distress if you need to hand her over into the hands of a trusted authority or a child protection officer.
