Our latest Market Insights podcast looks into how the war in Ukraine has made a refugee and human rights situation much worse and what strategies may be able to help
Human trafficking impacts 25 million people as victims around the world, 90% of which are women and girls, and generates an estimated of $150 billion per year. With the ongoing war in the Ukraine, the number of refugees around the world has dramatically increased, and for many fleeing the conflict, the danger is just beginning.
Human traffickers are capitalizing on those feeling war, particularly women and children refugees at their most vulnerable moments. What is most stunning is that demand for trafficked victims in the West spiked just after the start of the war, according to data from Thomson Reuters Special Services, which identified a 200% to 600% increase in the use of internet search terms related to sex, pornography, and “Ukrainian women” in the days and weeks after the conflict started.
In the latest podcast available on the Thomson Reuters Institute Market Insights channel, Heather C. Fischer, a senior advisor for human rights crimes at Thomson Reuters Special Services, speaks with Valiant (Val) Richey, the Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and human trafficking expert.
During the podcast, the pair talk about what human trafficking is, the scale of it as a global issue, and what anti-trafficking strategies work, particularly in light of the conflict in the Ukraine.
You can listen to the full podcast here.
