According to the US State Department's latest report on global human trafficking, the government of Ukraine has not reached minimum standards in the fight against this crime due to widespread corruption in the country. The report highlights Ukraine's significant efforts in this direction, but points to serious problems preventing the full implementation of international standards in this area.
The agency noted that corruption, especially in the police and judicial system, and the complicity of officials in crimes related to human trafficking remained serious problems that hindered the actions of law enforcement agencies.
The State Department noted Ukraine's efforts, despite the reduction of resources and capabilities due to the full-scale invasion of Russia.
The Ukrainian government identified more victims of human trafficking and continued large-scale awareness campaigns in coordination with international organizations.
The State Department noted that Ukraine did not meet minimum standards in several key areas. Judges continued to hand down lenient sentences that did not include prison time for most convicted traffickers. This weakened deterrence and undermined efforts to combat human trafficking.
Despite ongoing concerns about corruption fueling impunity for trafficking crimes and investigations against complicit officials, the government failed to secure a single conviction for the seventh year in a row.
Also, the Ukrainian government has not identified any foreign victims of human trafficking, and although the government has taken some measures to protect unaccompanied children. The report noted that deficiencies in state oversight of children evacuated from Ukrainian care facilities increased the risk of their trafficking.
The report also mentions crimes related to human trafficking committed in previous years and for which investigations have not been completed.
"In 2023, the Lviv prosecutor's office prosecuted a state official for alleged sex trafficking in France; The Attorney General's Office investigated the actions of a military commander for alleged forced labor; The Kyiv City Police investigated the actions of the former deputy chief of police and a police officer on suspicion of sex trafficking; and the prosecutor's office charged two former policemen with human trafficking. The government reported that numerous prosecutions of officials involved in crimes related to human trafficking, initiated in previous years, are ongoing," the report says.
The report also reports that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has forced 6.4 million people to flee Ukraine, and more than 3.4 million have become internally displaced.
Most of those who left the country are women and children. These refugees and displaced persons are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking.
Experts note that thousands of children unaccompanied by adults, as well as children evacuated from at least 195 institutions, including children with disabilities, are at high risk of falling into a situation of human trafficking.
The State Department report says that Russian forces forcibly relocated up to 1.6 million Ukrainians, including thousands of children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, to Russia, Belarus, and the occupied territories of Ukraine, including many to remote areas. As of January 2024, Russian authorities have reportedly returned approximately 500 children to Ukraine, a small number compared to the thousands of forcibly deported children.
The US State Department's Division of Human Trafficking Monitoring and Countermeasures publishes the Trafficking in Persons Report annually, which ranks 188 countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking. The report uses a three-tier system based on the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000
Tier 1 includes countries that fully comply with the minimum TVPA standards. Countries at this level have minimal risks of human trafficking because their governments have implemented adequate protections: USA, Germany, Estonia, Georgia, Poland and others.
Tier 2 includes countries that make significant efforts to comply with TVPA minimum standards, but do not fully comply. This level includes most countries, such as Ukraine, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland, Romania, Iraq and others.
Level 3 - countries that do not fully comply with the minimum TVPA standards and do not make significant efforts to do so: Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Venezuela and others.
This year, Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, where massive violations of human rights are noted, were classified as "individual cases".
