How many Ukrainian refugees have been trafficked? We won’t know for years.

Stereotypes of trafficking victims shape the policy response

The first reports of human trafficking from Ukraine show that the victims of the war’s trafficking are not the usual ones. Globally, women and girls make up 72 percent of global victims of human trafficking, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. However, as of 2015, nearly 50 percent of identified victims of trafficking from Ukraine were men and boys.

My book, Diffusion of Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia, shows how stereotypes about victims of trafficking can undermine efforts to help victims. For example, because many policies do not recognize men as victims of trafficking, most early efforts to disrupt the crime did little to stop refugees from being forced to work without pay in non-sex industries such as construction and agriculture.

I found two reasons why anti-trafficking policies often do not include men. First, anti-immigration attitudes lead people to view men as economic migrants rather than potential victims of trafficking, and so they simply do not identify. Second, trafficking in women for sexual purposes is an important political issue because many people believe that female victims are more deserving of government assistance than male victims.

Another stereotype that can make it difficult to prevent trafficking is the widespread belief that traffickers are men. Reports from the war in Ukraine often warn of men targeting refugees, but research shows that about a third of the world’s traffickers are women. Warning about suspicious men at train stations may not prepare refugees for the reality of human trafficking.

Ukraine’s anti-trafficking policy

In 1998, Ukraine became one of the first countries in the world and the first in Eurasia to adopt some form of anti-trafficking policy – almost two years before UN countries concluded negotiations and began signing the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in people, especially women and children, known as the Palermo Protocol.

Countries bordering Ukraine have vastly different types of human trafficking policies. For example, Russia does not offer rehabilitation programs or shelters for foreign victims and often accuses them of immigration violations. Belarus uses a trafficking policy—masked in the language of international human rights norms—to monitor and control its citizens. Sentencing guidelines in Eurasian countries for child trafficking range from a fine to 25 years in prison.

This means that depending on the country they land in, Ukrainian refugees may or may not find anti-trafficking services such as shelters for all victims (not just women or citizens), legal aid, medical care, job training , witness protection and the right to safe return. Hungary has no mechanism to identify foreign victims, does not check for migrant trafficking and offers very limited services. Conversely, Moldova has a fairly broad policy on human trafficking, including a way to direct victims to the social services they need, temporary residency in the country, witness protection, and the ability to overturn various convictions for victims who are proven that they acted under duress.

Ukraine consistently ranks at the top of my Human Trafficking Policy Index, which measures the extent of human rights policies on human trafficking. This was partly due to the fact that there were all four types of policy on human trafficking, including the listing of trafficking in the penal code, the existence of a national action plan, and national law and government regulations.

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The war has derailed Ukraine’s efforts to combat human trafficking

Before the war, Ukraine had already adopted 13 policies on various topics related to human trafficking and had fulfilled all its obligations under the Palermo Protocol. But the war prevented implementation. On March 4, the Ukrainian government sent a message to the UN Secretary-General that it is unable to guarantee full compliance with its obligations under the Palermo Protocol until Ukrainian territorial integrity is restored.

This suggests that however comprehensive a country’s human trafficking policies may be, waging war and enduring large-scale displacement can reverse those efforts.

My research found a similar throwback to 2014, when Russia first began fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region and annexed Crimea. This stage of the war was limited to one region, of course, and an estimated 2.5 million displaced people fled elsewhere in Ukraine in the first two years of the war. In conducting this study, I interviewed 59 people, including government representatives and stakeholders from key ministries, local civil society organizations, academics or journalists, and international organizations working in Ukraine. Most interviews were conducted in person in 12 of the 24 regions, including Ukraine’s now-annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

My interviews found that it usually takes some time after war for human trafficking to come to light because people remain exploited for some time. Other forms of gender-based violence during war, such as rape, are emerging rapidly; victims of trafficking can be detained for several weeks and sometimes years. In fact, many victims do not admit they have been exploited and take the time to come forward – especially men who have been forced to work without pay.

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The number of reported victims of trafficking in Ukraine fell from 932 in 2013 to 742 in 2015, the lowest number of identified victims since 2004 — revealing that identifying victims since the war began in 2014. it took some time, although people were mainly displaced within the country.

So how much traffic is being carried out now? We probably won’t know for years, given how refugees have spread across many countries. Many victims of human trafficking do not know where to seek help, especially in unfamiliar countries, making referral mechanisms, awareness, education and advocacy campaigns vital.

My research found that avoiding stereotyping of victims, having a broad set of human trafficking policies that cover everything from outreach to shelters for all victims to job training, and effective enforcement are essential if countries are to prevent human trafficking in times of war and mass displacement.

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Laura A. Dean (@proflauradean) is Associate Professor of Political Science, Director of Human Trafficking Research Laboratory at Millikin University and author of Human Trafficking Policy Diffusion in Eurasia (Policy Press, Bristol 2020).