How does the War in Ukraine increase the risks of Human Trafficking in Europe ?
" No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms " states Article 4 of the United Nations Charter of Human Rights. Nonetheless, slavery still exists, especially in Europe, but in a different form: human trafficking. According to the United Nations, "human trafficking is defined as the acquisition and exploitation of persons, by such means as force, fraud, coercion or deception." This camouflage of slavery in human trafficking allows criminals to operate in the shadows without the media shedding light on this form of slavery.
Human trafficking is increasing public concern given current events, especially with the war in Ukraine. Indeed, since February 24, 2022, the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, millions of refugees who are almost entirely women and children migrated to other parts of Europe. Consequently, in times of armed conflicts, the vulnerability of women and children of human trafficking is at its highest.
These crimes are not new in Europe, especially in its Eastern regions. Indeed, all migratory flows opened by armed conflicts entail an exponential risk of organized crime such as trafficking and smuggling of human beings. This has been the case with other refugees fleeing sub-Saharan Africa or the Middle East
. According to the 2018 UNODC Global Human Trafficking Report, 72% of human trafficking visits worldwide are women and girls. Indeed, women are the most affected by this crime given their vulnerability in wartime, they are targets for rape, hostage taking, torture performed in order to psychologically weaken the enemy armies.
Human trafficking can take many forms, such as forced prostitution, sexual exploitation, domestic slavery or forced labor. It can also be surrogate motherhood or organ trafficking. According to the European Commission, sexual exploitation is the most widespread form of trafficking in Europe. This is the risk that refugees from Ukraine face, 90% of whom are women and children. Furthermore, there are more than 7.2 million refugees from Ukraine registered across Europe since February 24, according to the report of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Also, UNHCR reveals that a total of 12.6 million people have crossed the Ukrainian border. This means that 5.4 million refugees have not been registered in Europe and may be unsafe or even unknowingly smuggled into a human trafficking network.
In fact, malicious and opportunistic people may have taken advantage of the vulnerability of these women and children from Ukraine to deceive them. They offer their help without being part of a recognized institutional or associative structure. A refugee is a human being with rights, these malicious people can take advantage of hosting refugees to give themselves a good conscience and treat them as objects.
Most of human traffickers are largely part of organized groups and networks of criminals or pimps. In order to attract their targets they offer different kinds of free services like transportation, housing or employment. More specifically, EUROPOL states that "in the short term, the highest risks are related to the potential targeting of victims by criminals under the pretext of promising transportation, free housing, employment or other forms of immediate support."
Refugees are particularly attentive to this kind of proposal, as they are in a mental crisis, which makes them easy prey. These women and children are separated from their loved ones and all their bearings, some of them are even isolated. Due to the ongoing conflict, Ukrainian women are saving their children and finding a safe place while the men are under the obligation to get involved in the military defense of their country. Moreover, the language barrier, as well as misunderstandings or lack of supervision, sow doubt and heighten the urgency of the situation and lead refugees to seek safety. For these reasons, Ukrainian refugees are easy targets for organized crime organizations. The risks of human trafficking are therefore very high given the crisis situation.
The areas of greatest concern and impact may be the reception centers, border areas, train and bus stations, since they are crowded with hundreds of thousands of refugees on site. Several testimonies from volunteers or non-governmental organizations revealed that there were single men who took pictures of Ukrainian women, selecting the youngest ones. The lack of staff, volunteers, and on-site monitoring increases the risk of execution of these human trafficking networks. As reported by journalists Thomas Saintourens and Simon Piel at Le Monde: "in the early days of the war in Ukraine, taking advantage of the chaos at the Sighetu Marmatiei border crossing (northwestern Romania), a driver, already convicted in the past for human trafficking, was arrested by Romanian police as he tried to take two confused young women with him."
The risks of exploitation, human trafficking and smuggling within the migration flows of refugees from Ukraine fleeing war is therefore very high. The solutions put in place are mostly preventive such as checkpoints, more pronounced surveillance within the reception centers, awareness raising for volunteers and NGOs to identify these criminals.
Finally, we should ask ourselves: once the armed conflict is over, will the risks exposed to human trafficking by the new flows generated by the war in Ukraine continue? In reality, we do not have concrete perspectives on this matter. This also raises the question of other migratory flows from other continents. Certainly, it is important for us to pay a particular attention to this issue and investigate it further for the sake of human rights, especially in times of war.
References :
United Nations (18, March, 2022) Press Release: Russian Invasion in Ukraine Leads to Increased Risks of Human Trafficking - IOM. Consulted on https://ukraine.un.org/en/175247-russian-invasion-ukraineleads-increased-risks-human-trafficking-iom.
United Nations, Office on Drugs and Crime (24, March, 2022), Vienna. Press Release: Ukrainian Refugees at High Risk of Exploitation. Consulted on https://www.unodc.org/unodc/press/releases/2022/March/targetedby-traffickers---ukrainian-refugees-at-high-risk-of-exploitation.html.
Péault, E.,(25, March, 2022) Guerre en Ukraine: prostitution, esclavage… Comment le conflit favorise le trafic d’êtres humains. Journal La Dépêche. Consulted on https://www.ladepeche.fr/2022/03/23/guerre-en-ukraine-prostitution-esclavage-comment-le-conflit-favorise-le-traficdetres-humains-10189354.php
Saintourens, T., & Piel, S. (19 April 2022) Press Review: Avec la guerre en Ukraine, la peur d’une hausse du trafic d’êtres humains le long des routes de l’exil. Journal Le Monde, (Police et Justice Edition). Consulted on https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2022/04/19/le-spectre-destrafics-d-etres-humains-sur-les-exiles-d-ukraine_6122696_3224.html
EUROPOL (March, 2022) Europe Public Information, Early Warning Notification: War in Ukraine - refugees arriving to the EU from Ukraine at risk of exploitation as part of THB. The Hague. Europe Operations Directorate, Operational and Analysis Centre, European Migrant Smuggling Centre. Ref. No.: 2022-340. Consulted on https://www.europol.europa.eu/cms/sites/default/files/documents/Early_Warning_Notification__War_in_Ukraine_%E2%80%93_refugees_arriving_- to_the_EU_from_Ukraine_at_risk_of_exploitation_as_part_of_THB.pdf.
UNHCR France (Updated 13, September, 2022) Report: Urgence Ukraine. Consulted on https://www.unhcr.org/fr-fr/urgence-ukraine.html
ONU FEMMES France : Le trafic d’être humains. Consulted on https:// www.onufemmes.fr/trafic-etres-humains
UNODC (2016) Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.16.IV.6. https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2016_Global_Report_on_Trafficking_in_Persons.pdf
About the author :
Christelle Rod is a Master's student in International Relations at the Institut of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) in Paris. She trained as a lawyer in international and European law at the Catholic University of Lille. Passionate about security issues and diplomatic news, she would like to take the competitive exam after her studies.
