How war is a boon to traffickers

Nelia was both terrified and captivated when she learned how deceptively easy human trafficking can be. Now she guides survivors to safety.

The phone rings in Nelia’s quiet apartment. She is never happy to hear it — the callers are almost always trapped in situations no one should have to endure.

“I’m in a truck and can’t escape because I’m naked.”

“I’m a disabled man stuck on someone else’s farm with no documents.”

Day after day, she hears stories like this.

As a psychologist for a human trafficking prevention hotline, Nelia Troychuk feels a sense of dread every time the phone rings. But each time it does, she steadies herself and focuses on helping.

Nelia Troychuk, a psychologist for the La Stranda human trafficking prevention hotline

The release of the Jeffrey Epstein files in the U.S. revealed multiple links between the late sex offender’s network and Ukraine, including contacts with modeling agencies, travel arrangements for Ukrainian women, and real estate business dealings.

Russia’s full-scale invasion has only made Ukrainians even more vulnerable to human trafficking since the period when Epstein was active. Since the start of the war in 2022, anti-trafficking hotlines across Europe have reported up to five times more calls than usual, a grim statistic that highlights heightened risks for displaced Ukrainians.

As the war drags on, traffickers capitalize on the instability it causes — luring victims with offers to help, be it under the guise of a rescue, a job opportunity, or safe housing. Patterns seen in conflicts — in Ukraine and worldwide — show that whenever new vulnerabilities emerge, exploitation networks are quick to take advantage of them. And they’re good at making the exploitation seem deceptively distant.

Before joining the hotline, Nelia Troychuk worked as a counseling psychologist. But when she began training for an anti-trafficking hotline, she became fascinated by how distant human trafficking can appear — seemingly an unlikely scenario that, in reality, can happen to anyone.

At the time, Nelia believed that human trafficking was limited to the sexual exploitation of young girls.

“I had a stereotypical image in my mind’s eye, that human trafficking targets are all young blonde girls with blue eyes,” she said.

But during the training, a single case she was told about dismantled this assumption.

A man was on vacation abroad when he met a woman. There was a romantic spark between them — or so he believed. She invited him to her home and offered him something to drink, tea or water. That drink was the last thing he could remember.

He woke up disoriented, trying to stand up, when a sharp pain sliced through his side. Looking around, he found an envelope containing $300. Then he looked down – and saw surgical stitches.

His kidney was gone.

The fact that a seemingly ordinary interaction on vacation could actually be such an unthinkable trap both terrified and captivated Nelia. It was a chilling paradox: human trafficking felt like a distant, faraway nightmare, yet it often unfolded right under our noses, unrecognized for what it was.

“This is especially true in cases of sexual exploitation, where abuse is often dismissed as ‘just their job’ or disguised as a consensual relationship with a boyfriend or husband,” said Nelia.

The face of sexual exploitation trauma isn’t always female either. Nelia recalls getting calls from men who were exploited in the same way; they were forced into undergoing physical alterations to their body to satisfy the demands of their traffickers.

Nelia notes that when people become desperate — from living in poverty, or perhaps being stripped of their homes or documents — their ability to think critically can be clouded, making them easier targets for traffickers posing as employers. In the fourth year of full-scale war, poverty remained high at 36.9 percent, while income inequality has been steadily deepening. About one in four households now includes at least one member who is internally displaced, a veteran, or living with a disability caused by the Russian invasion.

When seeking work abroad, Ukrainians often face language barriers, unfamiliar legal systems, and limited information about border rules or housing. Under stress in an unfamiliar environment, their ability to assess the credibility of potential employers weakens, increasing the risk of trafficking. Job opportunities are one of the common human trafficking ploys, according to Nelia.

Another disguise human trafficking can wear is the promise of accommodation. Posts offering free housing to Ukrainian women may appear benevolent, but such offers can sometimes be followed by blackmail and coercion.

Even the promise of a romantic relationship can be a sophisticated ruse for exploitation.

Nelia recalls a time when she was met not by an adult’s voice on the hotline, but a child’s. The boy explained that his mother had entered a relationship with a German man who wouldn’t allow her to leave the house, effectively trapping her in a state of domestic servitude.

Like all human trafficking survivors, those in these ‘domestic traps’ are often paralyzed by a profound sense of shame. It can be incredibly difficult for them to tell someone they’ve been trapped as essentially a slave at someone’s house.

The silence is also enforced through constant threats of deportation, convincing the victim they have no right to protection and the police are an enemy rather than a refuge.

In some cases, traffickers go even further, threatening the victim’s loved ones back home.

Part of Nelia’s job is to break through these threats. She must guide callers through their fear and toward the police station, ensuring that once they step forward, they will be moved to a safe shelter while an investigation is underway.

This is no easy task after a victim’s sense of safety and trust has been turned upside down by traffickers. There is perhaps no better illustration of that than one of the most dangerous ploys used by traffickers: evacuation.

At the start of the full-scale invasion, Romania had agreed to host Ukrainian refugees. But the number of arrivals quickly overwhelmed the country’s capacity.

In that chaos, traffickers found an opening. They waited among the crowds on the border, selecting their targets. And then they posed as volunteers, offering rides on “free evacuation buses.”

Instead of reaching safety, some fleeing Ukrainians were likely drawn into sexual or labor exploitation. This is especially likely since the majority of people who first evacuated from Ukraine in 2022 were women and children, often without documents.

Beyond Romania, this was a EU-wide problem. In 2022 the surge of volunteers offering transit help or accommodation to those fleeing in border regions made it difficult for authorities to monitor and vet them all.

As the immediate border emergency faded, the risk didn’t disappear – it evolved, increasingly showing up through exploitative job offers, insecure housing arrangement and online recruitment.

Refugees cross the Danube at the border into Romania on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at Isaccea, a small town in Tulcea county, which borders Ukraine. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images).

To combat human trafficking, La Strada Ukraine conducts a range of informational campaigns, from educational videos to a game-like online quest.

Nelia says raising awareness is especially important because it makes people recognize the warning signs of human trafficking and make them more likely to seek help.

It’s also important to work closely with the government, analyze the gaps in anti-trafficking policy and strengthen the state response to the trafficking. From 2022-2024, 212 individuals were recognised as as victims in traffic-related proceedings, including 46 children, according to the International Organization for Migration. 425 total offences related to human trafficking were registered.

When the phone rings, Nelia’s first priority is safety: She must ensure the caller isn’t being watched or followed.

She says some survivors sound detached, describing what’s happening as if it were happening to someone else — a friend, an acquaintance, or a sibling. Sometimes the victims themselves don’t fully realize they’re in a human trafficking situation.

Sometimes, Nelia says, people reach out simply for psychological help. They may not be ready to accept that they’re being trafficked, or to make any decisions. Instead, they seek support — something to anchor them after their trust in the world has been shattered, and their sense of self engulfed by a deep shame.

That’s why human trafficking trauma often leaves survivors hypervigilant and struggling to trust others and rebuild their sense of self-worth.

This trauma doesn’t just vanish once the exploitation ends; it lingers, complicating a survivor’s ability to navigate everyday life or even find confidence to seek employment in the future.

Not every call begins with a voice. Sometimes the phone rings and Nelia is met by silence – a sign the caller isn’t safe.

She recalls one instance when she spoke into the quiet, asking the survivor to cough if they could hear her but were unable to talk.

Nelia’s job is to lead them out of the fog towards help, and reassure them that they’re doing the right thing by reaching out. She instructs them to open up the notes app on their phones, or any messaging app, anything where they can write down the instructions.

Once a caller was so disoriented that they couldn’t even open an app. They had to scratch the instructions onto the ground with a stick. Perhaps the phone wasn’t even theirs, as Nelia remembers a time someone called her from their neighbor’s phone.

Nelia says some callers are so stressed they struggle to remember the phone numbers they need – like the police, or the International Organization for Migration.

When this happens, she uses association techniques. In Ukraine, for example, the International Organization for Migration hotline number is 527. So she chooses each word carefully and asks:

“How many fingers does a person have? 5, yes. How many eyes? Yes, 2. Now imagine touching your eyes with your hand and drawing the magical number 7. Done? Have you memorized this story? So what’s the number?”

Nelia says she’s never happy to receive these calls.

But she keeps going for that one moment when a caller finally says, “OK, I will call for help now,” and their voice becomes steadier, more certain, as they begin to understand there’s a way out.

NEWS OF THE DAY:

By Oleksandra Khelemendyk

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

UKRAINE PEACE TALKS PAUSED AMID IRAN WAR: Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitriy Peskov said that the trilateral peace negotiations between Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. are put on a “situational pause” because of the war in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the state-affiliated newspaper Izvestiia reported that the talks on economic and investment cooperation between the U.S. and Russia, led by Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev, would continue.

As the U.S. pushes further engagement in the Middle East conflict, Russia maintains an upper hand in its protracted war against Ukraine. Currently, Russia aims to wear out Ukrainian resources and seeks to benefit from the fuel crisis caused by the war in Iran.

IRAN WAR CAN END RUSSIA’S ISOLATION: The major Qatar’s LNG hub in Ras Laffan, attacked by Iran, supplies gas to Asia, Africa and Europe. Further destabilization of the world’s LNG market could lead Russia out of its international isolation. Before the attack, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever called to normalize ‌relations with Moscow and return to buying cheap Russian energy. Other European leaders oppose him, but may change their stance if the fuel crisis exacerbates.

Ras Laffan also produces fertilizers, including urea and ammonia, which are key to agriculture. India, its leading importer, mainly relies on Saudi Arabia and Oman, but still considers increasing purchases from Russia, Belarus and Morocco.

The war in the Middle East is driving a surge in demand for Russian fuels and chemicals, allowing the aggressor to resume international trade and allocate resources to wage war on Ukraine.

EU PRESSURES HUNGARY TO REMOVE BLOCK ON UKRAINE LOAN: EU leaders urge Hungarian ‌Prime Minister Viktor Orban to lift his veto on a vital 90-billion-euro ($103 billion) loan to Ukraine. Without this funding, Kyiv can run short of money for its defense in weeks.

Hungary blocked the loan because of a dispute over the Druzhba oil pipeline, which carried Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia but was damaged by Russia’s attack. At today’s European Council ‌summit, leaders ⁠of the 27 EU nations will try to convince Orban to unblock the loan. Success is unlikely, as Orban has close ties with Russia and will face an election next month.

UKRAINIAN MILTECH COMPANY GOES PUBLIC ON NASDAQ: Ukrainian drone producer Swarmer became the country’s first defense tech company to go public on Nasdaq. In two days, its stock increased tenfold, from $5 to more than $50 for each.

The company plans to use the raised capital to expand its product line, hire new specialists, and integrate its software with hardware solutions from other drone manufacturers, the Ministry of Finance said.

STATE AID FOR UKRAINIAN BUSINESSES INCREASED: The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine increased compensations for insurance payments and reconstruction for Ukrainian companies threefold, said Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko. Now, the highest possible compensation for property damaged by Russian attacks is 30 million hrn (about $682,000), and for insurance payments is up to 3 million hrn (about $68,000).

The program ‘Made in Ukraine’ intends to support domestic producers during wartime. Since January 1, 52 companies have applied for aid.

DOG OF WAR:

Today’s Dog of War is Marcus. He is from Kharkiv, but now lives in Kyiv. He didn’t want to pose for a picture at first, but Zoriana took a photo of him catching the first spring rays.

Stay safe out there.

Best,
Oksana