Analysis | Between war and trafficking
Fleeing Russian bombs, Ukrainian refugees face a new threat in neighboring countries
Displacement levels in and from Ukraine are at a historic high and climbing. Russia’s invasion has forced 4 million refugees and 6.6 million internally displaced persons to flee their homes. While neighboring countries, E.U. members, and the United States have offered protection, many Ukrainians are still at risk of a human rights violation too often insufficiently addressed in times of conflict: human trafficking. In Poland, a human rights organization has documented cases of traffickers offering false promises of transportation and accommodations to Ukrainian women refugees near shelters.
Human trafficking, or modern-day slavery, is defined by the United Nations Trafficking in Persons Protocol as “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of a person through force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.” Trafficking is one of the world’s most profitable illicit enterprises, generating $150 billion dollars annually. No racial or ethnic group is spared, nor is any country or community immune to this problem. Vulnerable populations have included Rohingya refugees fleeing genocide in Myanmar, African refugees exploited by Libyan coast guards while attempting to get to Europe, and Mexican citizens lured in with the promise of employment in the United States.
Trafficking is an economic crime and is often a consequence of socioeconomic ruin. While more prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe has seen an increase in trafficking since the 1990s, particularly in Eastern Europe, where the collapse of the Soviet Union created a source of vulnerable would-be victims. Unfortunately, some of these countries are now major entry points into the world’s most prosperous trading bloc.
Moldova, Romania, and Bulgaria are major hubs of modern-day slavery; the latter two are members of the European Union, with unfiltered access to E.U. markets, people, and services. While these countries are making strides at curbing human trafficking, progress is slow. The U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Reports has listed each of these countries as Tier 2, meaning that they do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards and their population of victims is significant and growing.
In Moldova, traffickers are rarely prosecuted, and the convictions hardly result in prison time. Additionally, as the poorest country in Europe, Moldova is in a precarious political situation, with an unstable government teetering between the east and the west. Romania is the E.U. member with the highest poverty rates. It also struggles with endemic government corruption and abuse, including instances of officials exploiting children while in the care of government-run homes or placement centers. In Bulgaria, courts continue to issue suspended sentences for most convicted traffickers and corruption in law enforcement hinders improvement. Combined, these countries currently host over one million out of the four million Ukrainian refugees who have been forced to flee so far.
Traffickers often seek to exploit the chaos of large-scale population movements and vulnerable populations within them. The profit gained from modern-day slavery and the ability to evade law enforcement make human trafficking a difficult problem to address. Unfortunately, it will not take long for bad actors, who know that refugees are desperate and have the right to visa-free entry into the EU, to merge with the crowd and offer false promises of help. Already, there have been reports by Polish Red Cross workers of traffickers operating alone and in gangs to lure Ukrainians in. When workers approached these persons and asked them to register in the volunteer directory, many typically fled.
Traffickers do not discriminate based on gender, race, social demographic, or immigration status, but certain populations have a higher vulnerability risk. According to International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Director General António Vitorino, reports show that people fleeing Ukraine are predominantly women, children, and older persons — some of whom are unaccompanied and separated — and third-country nationals who were residing in Ukraine at the time of the Russian invasion. These groups are the most exposed. With more than 1.5 million children having fled Ukraine as refugees since the invasion, and countless others displaced by violence inside the country, the threat of exploitation facing these children, along with other refugees, are heightened.
Fortunately, many governments, international and local humanitarian groups, and citizens are aware of the increased risk and are developing ad hoc methods to alert arrivals about the possibility of danger.
In Poland, organizations have developed a system to register drivers and use colored wristbands to distinguish approved volunteers to Ukrainian refugees. Some have also created passport-size pamphlets to distribute at the border with information to help Ukrainians identify trustworthy and untrustworthy resources . In Germany, the government has added an alert to its website saying, “please note that there may be criminals at Berlin central station who want to profit from the situation of war refugees.” While these are proactive initiatives, additional screening for protection risks should be implemented in shelters, large urban train stations, and other locations where refugees are gathering or passing through. It is also critical for national and international law enforcement to monitor the movement of children and women and actively mitigate the risks facing vulnerable groups. Additionally, governments need to acknowledge that punitive migration policies and a lack of access to legal migration avenues– unlike what Ukrainians have experienced– can further exacerbate refugees’ vulnerability to trafficking.
War and the displacement, poverty, and desperation that accompany it are an ideal environment for human traffickers to operate. The increasing threat of trafficking illustrates both the pressure of this deepening refugee crisis and stands in stark contrast to the display of hospitality since the crisis began. Governments alone cannot end trafficking and must partner with human rights organizations, the private sector, local governments, and citizens to work to eliminate modern-day slavery by addressing its drivers.
At the country level, governments can improve coordination among law enforcement to increase accountability, build the capacity of federal, state, and local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute human trafficking, and enhance the training of police forces and government officials to increase the identification of victims. They can also tackle aspects of their immigration policy that may facilitate the exploitation of potential migrants. At a regional level, governments can also cooperate with allies, including trade partners, and work in multilateral forums to address and combat human trafficking. As the case of Ukraine’s refugees shows, all governments that claim to value human rights must take immediate steps to end the illicit trade of people.
Kyilah Terry is a contributing writer for The Diplomatic Pouch. She graduated in May 2021 with an M.A. in German and European Studies from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, with a focus on forced displacement, European migration policy, and U.S. refugee law. She also received a Certificate in Diplomatic Studies and a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies. Currently, she serves as a U.S. Congressional fellow with the Vice President’s Office, a Government Relations fellow with Oxfam America, and a U.S. Institute of Peace research analyst. She writes here in a personal capacity.
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