It’s no surprise that traffickers are targeting Ukraine

Over the past weeks, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I have witnessed individuals expressing shock and disbelief at the blatant sexual violation of women and girls fleeing their homeland. Feminist colleagues in Ukraine and Russia tell me that there are thousands of displaced women and girls without any income, food or shelter. The war has become the perfect opportunity for pimps to trick or coerce women into prostitution.

We should know this by now. Wherever there is war and conflict, resulting in misplaced, vulnerable women and girls, there will be pimps waiting to pounce. But even so, there are those that should know better, such as some aid workers, claiming that, ‘No one saw it coming’. 

There are also those determined to hold on to the view that trafficking exists on a different planet to local prostitution. I can only assume that these people do not realise that many European brothels are already full to bursting of women trafficked from countries such as Romania and Thailand.