The secretary general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Helga Schmid, has warned of a «significant increase» in human trafficking since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
«Organized crime is often involved. These unscrupulous criminals take advantage of people who need help, who need money and do not speak the language of the new country they are in and who often have psychological trauma from the war,» Schmid warned in an interview with the German newspaper ‘Die Welt’.
Schmid revealed that internet searches for sexual services or pornography of Ukrainian women and minors have shot up 600 percent since the beginning of the war and an increase in cases of human trafficking with pregnant women has also been detected.
Victims are lured with false promises and exploited in the homes of families who take them in or are directly seized by traffickers at the border.
Between 25 and 27 million people are victims of human trafficking, according to the OSCE, but only 10,000 cases a year are reported and investigated, implying that there is «widespread impunity» for these crimes.
These modern-day slavers have increased their revenues fivefold in the last 15 years to $150 billion annually.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
