Ukraine's Human Trafficking Statistics for 2006
February 28, 2007
Ukraine's Ministry of the Interior has published human trafficking (slavery) statistics for 2006. According to rbc.ua, police registered the following data:
- 376 incidents of human trafficking
- 393 victims of human trafficking returned to Ukraine, including 52 minors
- the whereabouts of 5000 Ukrainians are unknown
Those are the official statistics, which only reflect those who have turned to the police and whose cases have been confirmed. The International Organization for Migration, however, has vastly different figures:
- 117,000 Ukrainians each year become victims of human trafficking (also: Moldova — 57,000, Romania — 28,000, Belarus — 14,000, Bulgaria — 9,500)
- Most victims are women and children
- Ukrainians are most often sold for forced labor on farms, prostitution, begging, and also various forms of crime
The U.N. reports that kidnapping for the slave trade is "highly prevalent" in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, and other countries. Common end destinations include the United States, Israel, Turkey, Italy, Japan, Germany, and Greece. Not everyone is at risk, and least of all foreigners living in Ukraine.
How human trafficking happens in Ukraine
During my meetings with anti-trafficking organizations around Ukraine I have been told that poor, uneducated, and unskilled Ukrainians from small towns and villages are at the greatest risk of falling prey to traffickers. Trafficking groups have liaisons in these locations that know people around town and pick out women and others who can be easily lured into a "promising job proposition" overseas that will help them out of their material problems. These liaisons win over the women's trust and seem like savior figures to them, sometimes lending them money for a visa or the trip overseas if the woman pays them when she gets back. These liaisons get a certain sum of money for each person they lure.
When the women (or men or children) reach their destination across the border, they are met by people who take away their documents and take them to their new home. What happens next depends on the situation. Often women are told they have to work off their new owner's debt before getting their documents back, and the prostitution cycle begins. Women generally start at somewhat decent establishments and are sold and resold to worse and worse bars and brothels as they "age."
Some manage to escape by finding ways to contact police. Others have clients who take pity on them and help them get out, often helping pay their way back home. Often women are allowed to call their family periodically, but are carefully monitored as to what they say over the phone. In most cases the women are told their family back home will suffer if they try to escape or tell anyone what they are doing. This is one of the reasons that women are not inclined to report to the police when they get back home, despite the education efforts of numerous anti-trafficking organizations.
Of course, not all traffickers are interested in prostitutes. Men are sometimes forced into slave labor on fishing vessels and other locations where they are isolated from the outside world. Also, children are trapped in begging rackets overseas. Sometimes they are drugged daily to keep them lethargic as they beg. Worried parents or family members sometimes hear about anti-trafficking organizations and call their hotlines to talk about the situation and get advice. These organizations can then help organize rescue operations.
None of the anti-trafficking organizations I have talked to hinted at numbers even close to the 117,000. Most seemed to suggest that there might be several thousand such trafficking victims each year from Ukraine. I don't know where this large number comes from.
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