UN wants to protect Ukrainian refugees from traffickers

The millions of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine are a potential prey to all kinds of traffickers, so the UN wants to address them quickly to protect women, children and the most vulnerable groups.

“We are taking the lead because trafficking has been a problem in the past and because we know the extent to which traffickers know how to adapt to circumstances to take advantage of the situation,” said during an interview with AFP, the head of operations of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Ugochi Daniels.

Although, at the moment, his services have not been informed of any cases, “that does not mean that it is not happening,” he stresses, insisting on the huge number of people who are moving, in “desperate search for a means of transport.”

- Children-

Half of the three million people who have taken refuge in one of the countries bordering Ukraine since February 24, when Russian troops stormed the country, are children. The UN has warned that unaccompanied minors are especially vulnerable.

Even before the conflict, trafficking in human beings was already a problem in Ukraine. In 2021 alone, IOM identified and helped a thousand victims of human trafficking.

To help these refugees, who have often left their homes in a hurry and carrying very little goods with them, the UN agency has strengthened its equipment and services.

Daniels stressed that they are concentrating on providing practical and vital information to those fleeing the war: who to turn to, what options they have and what coach lines are, which transport companies they trust.

“We've heard stories of people boarding people on the street and offering them their own vehicle,” Daniels said. Something that is generally perceived as a gesture of solidarity but which, in reality, can be a trap. And the same goes for job vacancies.

However, the official pointed out that many refugees are perfectly aware of the danger. “Half of the questions asked through our information telephone have to do with the trafficking” of human beings.

- Discrimination? -

IOM, which has a team of 200 people in Ukraine and a hundred collaborators in the surrounding countries, is also providing humanitarian aid to the displaced.

The agency focuses especially on citizens of other countries who, being affected by the conflict, have had to leave Ukraine despite not necessarily having the same rights as Ukrainians in host countries.

To date, IOM has registered some 162,000 and the UN has echoed the treatment reserved for people from African countries or Asia.

But Daniels indicated that, in any case, they seem to be isolated cases: “We have not seen any systematic discrimination.”

He also applauded the international mobilization in the face of the largest exodus in Europe since the Second World War.

“There is nothing like the generosity of governments, of the oenegés, of churches and citizens,” he said.

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