A WOMAN in her early thirties arrives at the border of Ukraine and Poland, her three children in tow. She spots several other people getting into a van as an older woman approaches her. She is taking a group to Switzerland, she says with a smile, where they can be safe with host families. She and her children may join them, but they must hurry. The van will leave in a few minutes. With little time to think it through, the woman climbs aboard the van with her children, and none of them are ever seen again.
This nightmare has repeated over and over in the countries of eastern Europe. Human traffickers see a great opportunity to make a fortune from capturing and enslaving the millions of people fleeing war-torn Ukraine. Since most of the men have stayed to fight, women and children are fleeing the country, hoping to find compassionate people to help them. And they do. Government agencies, the United Nations, private organizations and individuals are making great efforts, and taking great risks, to help the ten million refugees fleeing Ukraine.
But among those good Samaritans there are leeches and vipers and they are very good at what they do. Local relief agencies and journalists who witness this activity right under their noses say that it goes on every day at border crossings. One journalist saw an unmarked vehicle driven by a man wearing a t-shirt that read “Assistance” in multiple languages. When she asked the man which agency he worked for, he simply said “the government.” When the journalist pressed for more specific information he drove away.
For a refugee in an unfamiliar country who does not speak the language, who has no money or connections, a person who looks to be in authority and appears to be a beacon of hope. Indeed, that is why the legitimate aid workers are there. But it is not easy to tell the real help from the trap.
The women and children will likely end up in the sex trade. Some pornographic websites now offer entire menus of videos featuring Eastern Europeans, and illegal brothels operate all over the world. But it would be a mistake to assume traffickers are not interested in men. They are in high demand too, as workers in illegal fishing operations, mining, and agriculture. Illegal fishing vessels are the ideal place to exploit trafficking victims. To someone who does not want to be there, a ship at sea is a prison. On a boat that is fishing illegally, there is no communication, no pay, barely enough food, and no opportunity to remedy the situation. Trafficking covers a lot of ground, and their assets are in high demand.
This is a good time for human traffickers. The demand for slaves to feed labor needs such as illegal fishing and the sex trade has never been higher, and chaos throughout the world gives traffickers the freedom to do what they do: feed off the miserable and vulnerable among us. Out in the Pacific, we are no strangers to trafficking. The islands serve as both producers and consumers of enslaved people. Keep that in mind if you get a massage from someone with a Ukrainian accent.
BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for 20 years. He currently resides on the mainland U.S.
BC Cook
