As millions of women and children flee across Ukraine's borders in the face of Russian aggression, concerns are growing over how to protect the most vulnerable refugees from becoming victims of human traffickers or other forms of exploitation.
The UN refugee agency says more than 2.5 million people, including more than a million children, have already fled war-torn Ukraine in what has become an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Europe and its fastest exodus since World War II.
In countries throughout Europe, including the border nations of Romania, Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia, private citizens and volunteers have been greeting and offering help to those whose lives have been shattered by war.
From free shelter to free transport to work opportunities and other forms of assistance, help isn't far away, but neither are the risks.
Police in Wrocław, Poland, said on Thursday they detained a 49-year-old suspect on rape charges after he allegedly assaulted a 19-year-old Ukrainian refugee he lured with offers of help over the internet.
The suspect could face up to 12 years in prison for the "brutal crime", authorities said.
Police in Berlin warned women and children in a post on social media in Russian and Ukrainian against accepting offers of overnight stays, and urged them to report anything suspicious.
'There are many, very dangerous propositions'
At Romania's Siret border after a five-day car journey from the bombed historical city of Chernihiv, 44-year-old Iryna Pypypenko waited inside a tent with her two children, sheltering from the cold.
She said a friend in Berlin who is looking for accommodation for her has warned her to beware of possibly nefarious offers.
Pypypenko said people were offering help — but she was not sure who she could trust.
"There are many, very dangerous propositions," said Pypypenko, whose husband and parents stayed behind in Ukraine.
"She told me that I have to communicate only with official people."
A number of officials and non-governmental organisations have been raising the alarm about the increased risks of human trafficking.
"The risk for these things to happen is very high," said Andreea Bujor, communications advocacy director for World Vision Romania.
Security officials in Romania and Poland said plain-clothed intelligence officers were on the lookout for criminal elements.
In the Romanian border town of Siret, authorities said men offering free rides to women have been sent away.
Ionut Epureanu, the chief police commissioner of Suceava county, said at the Siret border police were working closely with the country's national agency against human trafficking and other law enforcement.
Advice to women was being given at the border by police, he said, including making sure they kept their phone batteries charged and that they write down the number plates of cars they get into.
Forced prostitution just one form of potential exploitation
The Migration Data Portal notes that humanitarian crises such as those associated with armed conflicts "can exacerbate pre-existing trafficking trends and give rise to new ones" and that traffickers can thrive on "the inability of families and communities to protect themselves and their children".
From sexual exploitation, to forced labour, to domestic slavery, to organ removal, and forced criminality, human trafficking is often inflicted through coercion and abuse of power.
A 2020 human trafficking report by the European Commission, the EU's executive branch said sexual exploitation was the most common form of human trafficking in the 27-nation bloc and that nearly three-quarters of all victims are female, with almost every fourth victim a child.
A large proportion of the refugees arriving in the border countries want to move on to friends or family elsewhere in Europe and many are relying on strangers to reach their destinations.
'We just want to try and get women and kids to safety'
At Poland's Medyka border, seven former members of the French Foreign Legion, an elite military force, are voluntarily providing their own security to refugees and are on the lookout for traffickers.
"This morning we found three men who were trying to get a bunch of women into a van," said one of the former legionnaires, a South African who gave only his first name, Mornay.
"I can't 100 per cent say they were trying to recruit them for sex trafficking, but when we started talking to them and approached them — they got nervous and just left immediately."
"We just want to try and get women and kids to safety," he added.
At the train station in the Hungarian border town of Zahony, Dayrina Kneziva arrived from Kyiv with her childhood friend.
Fleeing a war zone, she said, left them little time to consider other potential dangers.
"When you compare … you just choose what will be less dangerous," said the 25-year-old, who hopes to make it to Slovakia's capital of Bratislava with her friend.
"When you leave in a hurry, you just don't think about other things."
AP
