“The National Academy of Internal Affairs hosted an international roundtable “Countering Trafficking in Human Beings in Ukraine and the United States: lessons and current challenges”. The event united representatives of state bodies of Ukraine and the US, international and public organizations, scientists and law enforcement officers for the exchange of experience, coordination of efforts and increased cooperation in the fight against one of the most cynical crimes of the present. Organizers of the event”, – WRITE ON: ua.news
The National Academy of Internal Affairs hosted an international roundtable “Countering Trafficking in Human Beings in Ukraine and the United States: lessons and current challenges”. The event united representatives of state bodies of Ukraine and the US, international and public organizations, scientists and law enforcement officers for the exchange of experience, coordination of efforts and increased cooperation in the fight against one of the most cynical crimes of the present. The event was organized by the National Academy of Internal Affairs, the University of Florida (USA) and the European Union advisory mission (CMEU).
This was reported by the NAPS press service.
The discussion was joined by the Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine Andriy Nebitov, Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets, Head of the National Social Service Service of Ukraine Vasyl Lutsyk, as well as the rector of NAPS Ruslan Serbin and others. They all emphasized that the full -scale war created the conditions under which trafficking in human beings went far beyond the “traditional” ideas about this phenomenon.
The Deputy Head of the National Police Andriy Nebitov voiced alarming statistics: “During the full -scale invasion, 435 facts of trafficking in human beings were revealed. 221 traffic (a person engaged in trafficking in human beings, that is, the movement, recruitment, maintenance or exploitation of people for the purpose of gaining benefit, often sexual or labor), was sent to court by criminal proceedings against 16 organized criminal groups. Only the National Police was recognized as victims of 353 people – including 159 women, 148 men and 46 children. So we see that absolutely everyone, regardless of gender, can be a victim. ”
He also noted that law enforcement officers rethink the philosophy of investigations and qualify the actions of pimps and organizers of online studios, where they exploit girls in pornographic business. By documenting their illegal activity, the police now focuses on obtaining evidence of trafficking in human beings – the recruitment of victims, their transfer or receipt for operation, control and all forms of coercion. Particular attention is paid to the use of IT crimes related to trafficking in human beings: the online environment becomes a tool for control, advertising and influencing victims. During the discussion, the issue of deportation of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation was also raised.
“The system of adoption of Ukrainian children in the territory of the Russian Federation has acquired” industrial capacity “. We also see that foster parents are also involved in this. We record the forced certification, cases of forced mobilization of already exported children. I would like to emphasize that the deportation of Ukrainian children began in 2014. Now they have already reached the age when they can mobilize. I personally communicated with the captives of the Russian soldiers who were in fact Ukrainian, and they noted that they had no choice – they were forcibly mobilized, ”Dmitry Lubinets, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights.
As of today, under the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, 1359 children have already been returned to Ukraine, Dmitry Lubinets said. This is the result of working together with international partners. Among them, for example, five Ukrainian teenagers who were taken out of the temporarily occupied territory of Kherson to the Crimea. At the site of children, they were forced to produce Russian symbols, to agitate for the aggressor state, to distribute products to other children. In case of disobedience – restricted in food and water, isolated in the basements. Currently, all five are under the patronage of the Save Ukraine Charitable Foundation.
The head of the National Social Service Service of Ukraine Vasyl Lutsyk emphasized the need to rethink approaches to the qualification of crimes related to trafficking in human beings, in wartime: “The war has changed not only the map of Ukraine but also the focus of our policy in the field of combating trafficking in human beings. And if we have talked about isolated cases of recruitment, work or sexual exploitation, today we are faced with mass risks of a systemic nature. In this regard, we have a new look at the legal qualification of crimes. Trafficking in human beings in modern conditions often has signs of war crimes and crimes against humanity. ”
The illustration of such cases may be the history of the Ukrainian military, captured by the island of Snake. It was kept in the so -called “diesel” in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where he suffered systematic abuse: the prisoners were forced to perform absurd physical work – to clean huge arrays of snow, dig a football field, build fences from snow. In parallel – constant beating, moral pressure, threats of sexual abuse.
The result of the meeting was a common understanding: the fight against trafficking in human beings in the conditions of war requires not only decisions at the level of legislation or law enforcement, but also close interaction between all those involved – state, international partners, civil society. The roundtable participants emphasized the importance of further discussions that allow you not to silence complex topics, but to look for specific ways of protecting people – especially the most vulnerable.
