.png)
Context of Ukraine in numbers:
- Another 400,000 refugees arrived to EU in the first six months of 2024 alone.
- 4,7 million people are displaced within Ukraine.
- 11 973 civilians and 583 children killed;
- 19 546 children deported to Russia or to temporary occupied territory;
- 1 932 children missed;
- New wave of vulnerable internally displaced people (IDP) from the East. Since August of this year, 170,000 people have left their homes in the east of the country;
- Intensification of bombing: introduction of guided aerial bombs (Zaporizzha, Sumy, Kharkiv regions), combined attacks of drones, missiles, ballistic missiles (Poltava, Lviv, Kyiv regions), double tapping (Odesa, Kharkiv regions);
- Movement forward on the front line, burnt ground tactics;
- Continued destruction of energy infrastructure – 60% of 2022 capacity was destroyed in 2024.
- Destruction and damage of civilian infrastructure: 250 000 houses, 3 798 educational facilities, 1 911 healthcare facilities, 2 093 cultural objects, 630 religious building.[1]
Caritas Ukraine at the Front Line of Counter Trafficking
Significant war-related population displacement has increased the risks of human trafficking, as noted in a report by the Office of Monitoring and Combating Human Trafficking at the US Embassy in Ukraine. The war and its economic impact increased the individual vulnerability to human trafficking even of those Ukrainians who did not become displaced persons. National social service noted more cases of human trafficking and only for half a year granted 121 official statuses of the victims of human trafficking (in comparison to 118 in 2023). As in December 2024 National social service noted already 182 cases of human trafficking. 123 cases are combined types of exploitation, 19 cases of involving into war conflict, 15 persons became the victims of labor exploitation and 13 persons were sexually exploited.
[1] Data as of November 2024 by Ombudsman of Ukraine
The tendency of labor, sexual and other exploitation of Ukrainians in captivity or at the occupied territories, is going on. The representatives of Caritas Ukraine and all the experts in counter trafficking underline the affection of war and increasing the cases of exploitation due to armed conflict, occupation and captivity of civilians by russians.
“The on-going war has accelerated these exploitation trends. Traffickers know how to prey on people under stress; they know exactly who to target, how to recruit vulnerable individuals for later exploitation.” – Natalia Holynska, counter trafficking project manager, Caritas Ukraine.
During the last 6 months Caritas Ukraine staff identified 120 potential victims of trafficking, 78 survivors of trafficking. 77 of them were included into the project as direct beneficiaries and received the comprehensive assistance. Tailor made assistance to the victims is being given to the beneficiaries during a period of time. All the direct beneficiaries received psychological or psychotherapeutic services, social, medical, judicial, material assistance, information, referral, assistance in job searching and grants for micro-business.
Almost 70 thousand people received useful information and were probably prevented from risks of human trafficking. The on-line course created by Caritas Ukraine at the platform Prometheus “Human trafficking: how to protect yourself and your loved ones” was actively advertised among different target groups. General feedback of the participants is very good, they estimated the course with the mark 8,6 (from 10 possible). 9 from 10 participants would recommend this course to the others.
Prepared by Natalia Holynska,
Caritas Ukraine counter trafficking project manager