Concerns about human traffickers target of Ukrainian refugees

Mornay, a former member of the French Foreign Legion, walks around the border crossing in Medyka, southeastern Poland, on Friday, March 11, 2022. Mornay is one of seven former soldiers of the French Foreign Legion, an elite military organization, who are voluntarily providing their own security to refugees and on the alert for traffickers near Poland's Medyka border. Image Credit - (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

One suspect was arrested in Poland on charges of raping a 19-year-old refugee whom he enticed with offers of sanctuary after she fled war-torn Ukraine. Before officials interfered, another was overheard proposing work and a place to a 16-year-old girl.

Another incident occurred within a refugee camp near Poland's Medyka border when a man offered assistance only to women and children. When confronted with the police, he revised his tale.

Concerns are developing about how to safeguard the most vulnerable migrants from being targeted by human traffickers or becoming victims of other sorts of exploitation as millions of women and children escape over Ukraine's borders in response to Russian aggression.

"Obviously, all of the refugees are women and children," said UNHCR's head of global communications Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, who has visited crossings in Romania, Poland, and Moldova.

"You must be concerned about any potential hazards for trafficking, as well as exploitation, sexual exploitation, and maltreatment." "These are the kinds of situations that criminals like traffickers... aim to exploit," she explained.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, more than 2.5 million people have fled war-torn Ukraine, including more than a million children, in what has become Europe's biggest humanitarian disaster and the fastest exodus since World War II.

Private people and volunteers from all across Europe, including the border countries of Romania, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, and Slovakia, have been greeting and assisting those whose lives have been devastated by conflict. Help isn't far away, from free shelter to free transportation to job chances and other sorts of support.

But neither are the dangers.

Police in Wroclaw, Poland, said Thursday that they had arrested a 49-year-old man on rape charges after he reportedly assaulted a 19-year-old Ukrainian immigrant whom he had enticed with offers of assistance via the internet. Authorities said the culprit may face up to 12 years in prison for the "brutal act."

A volunteer walks past a poster giving advice on personal safety at the Romanian-Ukrainian border, in Siret, Romania, Monday, March 7, 2022. Concerns are developing about how to safeguard the most vulnerable migrants from being targeted by human traffickers or becoming victims of other sorts of exploitation as millions of women and children escape over Ukraine's borders in response to Russian aggression. Image Credit : (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

"He met the girl through an internet portal by offering his assistance," police stated in a statement. "She fled war-torn Ukraine and didn't know Polish." She put her faith in a man who promised to help and shelter her. Unfortunately, all of this turned out to be deception."

In a post on social media in Ukrainian and Russian, Berlin police reminded women and children not to accept offers of overnight stays and urged them to report anything suspicious.

According to Tamara Barnett, head of operations at the Human Trafficking Foundation, a U.K.-based charity founded by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, such a sudden, large movement of individuals might be a "recipe for tragedy."

"When you suddenly have a massive cohort of really vulnerable people who need money and support right now," she explained, "it's a breeding environment for exploitative circumstances and sexual exploitation." When I observed all these volunteers volunteering their homes, it raised a red signal in my mind."

According to the Migration Data Portal, humanitarian crises such as those linked with conflicts "may intensify pre-existing trafficking trends and give rise to new ones," and traffickers can feed on "families' and communities' inability to protect themselves and their children."

The Associated Press was told by security authorities in Romania and Poland that plain-clothed intelligence personnel was on the watch for criminal elements. Authorities in the Romanian border town of Siret reported males offering free rides to women had been expelled.

Human trafficking is a serious violation of human rights that can involve a variety of exploitative professions. It is generally inflicted by traffickers by compulsion and abuse of power, ranging from sexual exploitation (such as prostitution) to forced labor, domestic slavery, organ removal, and forced criminality.

The European Commission, the EU's executive department, puts the yearly global profit from people trafficking at 29.4 billion euros ($32 billion) in a 2020 study. According to the report, sexual exploitation is the most common type of human trafficking in the 27-nation bloc, with nearly three-quarters of all victims being female, and nearly every fourth victim being a kid.

Armed Military Police converse with gendarmes as they observe refugees fleeing the violence in neighboring Ukraine at the Romanian-Ukrainian border in Siret, Romania, on Sunday, February 27, 2022. Concerns are developing about how to safeguard the most vulnerable migrants from being targeted by human traffickers or becoming victims of other sorts of exploitation as millions of women and children escape over Ukraine's borders in response to Russian aggression. Image Credit: (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

According to Madalina Mocan, committee director at ProTECT, an organization that brings together 21 anti-trafficking organizations, there are "already worrying signs," with some refugees being offered shelter in exchange for services such as cleaning and babysitting, which could lead to exploitation.

"There will be attempts by traffickers to enter the border with victims from Ukraine." "Women and children are vulnerable, especially those who lack connections — family, friends, and other networks of assistance," she said, adding that if the war continues, "more and more vulnerable individuals" will cross the border.

Dayrina Kneziva, 25, arrived from Kyiv with a childhood friend at the train station in the Hungarian border town of Zahony. Kneziva explained that fleeing a conflict zone gave them little time to contemplate other potential threats.

"When you compare... you just choose what's less risky," said Kneziva, who intends to visit Slovakia's capital, Bratislava, with a friend. "When you're in a hurry, you don't think about anything else."

Many of the migrants arriving in border countries want to continue their journey to friends or relatives in other parts of Europe, and many are relying on strangers to get there.

"The people leaving Ukraine are under mental stress, trauma, terror, and disorientation," said Cristina Minculescu, a psychotherapist at Next Steps Romania who works with victims of human trafficking. "It's not just human trafficking; there's also the potential of abduction, rape... their weaknesses being exploited in other ways."

Iryna Pypypenko, 44, waited inside a tent with her two children at Romania's Siret border following a five-day automobile journey from the devastating medieval city of Chernihiv. She claims that a friend in Berlin who is looking for housing for her has urged her to be wary of potentially shady offers.

"She told me there are many, very risky ideas," Pypypenko, whose husband and parents remained in Ukraine, added. "She advised me that I had to contact exclusively with officials and believe just what they told me."

Ionut Epureanu, the top police commissioner of Suceava county, told the Associated Press near the Siret border that officers are collaborating with the country's anti-human-trafficking agency and other law enforcement to try to avoid crimes.

"We're aiming to establish a control for every car exiting the area," he explained. "A hundred individuals making transportation have good intentions, but it only takes one who doesn't... and disaster can occur."

Vlad Gheorghe, a Romanian member of the European Parliament who founded the United for Ukraine Facebook group, which has over 250,000 members and pools resources to help refugees, including housing, says he is working closely with authorities to prevent any abuses.

"No offer for volunteering, staying, or anything else goes unnoticed; we scrutinize every offer," he explained. "We phone back, ask some questions, and do a quick check before accepting any offer of assistance."

Seven former soldiers of the French Foreign Legion, an elite military organization, are voluntarily providing their own security to refugees and on the alert for traffickers near Poland's Medyka border.

"We discovered three men this morning trying to lure a lot of women into a van," said one of the former legionnaires, Mornay, a South African who only revealed his first name. "I can't say they were trying to recruit them for sex trafficking, but when we started talking to them and approaching them — they got nervous and just left."

"We just want to get women and children to safety," he added. "There is a huge risk since there are so many people and you don't know who is doing what."

Back at her tent on the Siret border, Pypypenko said people were offering her assistance, but she wasn't sure who she could rely on.

"People just come in and tell us they can transport us to France for free," she explained. "Today, we're here for three hours... We had two or three similar propositions. I couldn't even fathom such a situation, that such a huge tragedy could be a crime scene."

This report was contributed to by AP journalists Renata Brito in Siret, Romania; Vanessa Gera and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland; Justin Spike and Bela Szandelszky in Zahony, Hungary; and Florent Bajrami in Medyka, Poland. Toisthe Just Furnish and Publish it.