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Crime The Internet

Hackathon Finds Dozens of Ukrainian Refugees Trafficked Online (arstechnica.com) 50

Posted by BeauHD from the human-trafficking dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Earlier this year, the International Organization for Migration reported that more than 3 million refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine were "at heightened risk of exploitation." Human trafficking cases, they warned, involved refugees more likely to leave home suddenly without secure financial resources and "less likely to be identified in the immediate aftermath of mass displacement." Since February, the European Union announced (PDF) that the number is even larger, counting more than 5.4 million people who "have arrived in the European Union since the beginning of the war in Ukraine." "All relevant stakeholders have recognized that the threat of trafficking in human beings is high and imminent," EU's human trafficking plan states. Since women and children represent the majority of refugees fleeing, the plan says they are believed to be most at risk.

To respond, the EU began monitoring online and offline human trafficking risks, and experts called for countries across Europe to start working together to shield refugees during this uncertain time of conflict. This week, the EU's law enforcement agency focused on cybercrimes, Europol, reported that it had done exactly that by coordinating the first online EU-wide hackathon. By bringing together law enforcement authorities from 20 countries to aid in their investigations, the hackathon targeted criminal networks using social platforms and websites to map out the online criminal landscape of human trafficking across Europe. In particular, Europol noted in its report, "investigators targeted human traffickers attempting to lure Ukrainian refugees."

"The Internet and human trafficking are interlinked," Europol stated in its report, which identified 30 online platforms "related to vulnerable Ukrainian refugees," 10 specifically targeting refugees for human trafficking. Europol identified 80 persons/usernames (with 30 possibly exploiting Ukrainian refugees), 11 suspected human traffickers (five believed to be targeting Ukrainian refugees), and 45 possible victims, 25 of which were Ukrainian. Countries involved in the hackathon were Austria, Albania, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine. Online platforms probed during the hackathon included "a wide range of websites" and "social media, dating platforms, advertising and aid platforms, forums and messaging applications."
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Hackathon Finds Dozens of Ukrainian Refugees Trafficked Online More

Hackathon Finds Dozens of Ukrainian Refugees Trafficked Online

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  • russia is a sewer that breeds creatures that rape 4 year old Ukrainian kids (and anyone up to and including 82 y.o. victims), torture civilians and captured soldiers, murder civilians and prisoners of war, soldiers or otherwise, steal everything, from old underwear to toilet bowls, cars, steel, grain, farm equipment and of course people. They are kidnapping people, selling them into slavery in our 'modern' world. That is not even a country, they have a convicted thief, sex offender, sex trafficker [wikipedia.org] run hi

    • When the Nazis came to Poland, they had a superiority complex. A local commander ordered that Poles shouldn't be taught to count above 500 -- because being an inferior race they'd have trouble mastering such knowledge, and they shouldn't need that for tasks they're usable for. My great grandfather had his bakery taken from him, as making bread is too high a responsibility to be entrusted to a mere Polack. And eg. rapes by Germans were punished because 1. it's an act beneath the decorum of a Master Race,

      • A neighbour was less lucky -- in a cabinet there was a set of decent plates behind glass (not even porcelain, just better than ordinary) -- and this was enough to set russkies into a rage, with shouts about "polish lords".

        Aside from all the other things which are sad about this, the fact that Russians think a china hutch means royalty is perhaps the most pathetic.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 )

      Look at that, we can almost agree on something eventually...

      I'd say that Russia has a similar problem today that Germany had about 90 years ago: A militarist history with lots of autocratic rule and the only taste of democracy they ever had would better be characterized as anarchy. That's what Russia is today, and what Germany was in the 1930s. And of course it leads to the same problem: People preferring an autocratic regime that at least promises stability to the anarchy of a democracy in a country that h

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Yes, pretty much. Unfortunately crushing a nuclear power enough to make it rethink its ways is very, very tricky, if it can be done at all.

        • Russian generals have kids, too, and they want to see them grow up. Launching those nukes ain't as trivial as one might think. They know fully well that if a single nuclear missile starts, stories about Moscow will begin with "Once there was a beautiful city where this crater is now".

          In 1979, nobody thought that the Shah with the 4th largest army of the planet could be toppled by an unarmed population. Guess what, it happened.

    • I have been repeating for many years that Russia is an example of a mobster take over so complete they own an entire country.

  • Seriously, the results here find that this is not a problem, despite the dishonest language trying to suggest the converse. Add that the "trafficking" fetishists now think that you can "self-traffick", which basically means people taking jobs they fetishists do not like, and the number becomes even more meaningless.

    So yes, this is a problem and usually it means people being coerced into crap jobs with bad pay, but no, it is not a massive problem that deserves special attention when applied to Ukrainian refu

    • There is no standard definition for "trafficking".

      In America, federal dollars are available to combat trafficking, so state and local governments have a big incentive to label every teenage runaway as "trafficking" so they can tap into the federal gravy train.

      NGOs then use these inflated numbers to lobby Congress to allocate even more money to fight the growing "trafficking crisis."

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        There is no standard definition for "trafficking".

        Indeed. And that is were the misdirection and the lies start. Even using that word is already close to a lie these days.

        In America, federal dollars are available to combat trafficking, so state and local governments have a big incentive to label every teenage runaway as "trafficking" so they can tap into the federal gravy train.

        NGOs then use these inflated numbers to lobby Congress to allocate even more money to fight the growing "trafficking crisis."

        Very much so. The statements are often so grossly inflated that they cannot be real anymore and not only by plausibility. For example, in some cases you have more "trafficked" teenagers than you have teenagers in the first place. That is what happens when you give no-honor functionaries and politicians something they can claim as "bad" but were verifying the actual numbers takes some effor

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      If Europol deem to it be criminal activity then clearly it's not just "people taking jobs they do not like".

  • It seems like these days "trafficked" can refer to anyone in the sex work industry, I don't see why Ukrainian women in particular would be all that prone to trafficking, as opposed to independently trying to offer sex work services on their own... it's great to try and help someone that really is being coerced but too many independent women are getting caught in that net.

    • So if you are sleeping on a dirty couch every night and sleeping with strangers all day for little to no money in a country where you don't even speak the language while armed men hold your passport and other personal papers, does that mean you are independently offering sex services?

      • So if you are sleeping on a dirty couch every night...

        No, obviously that is trafficking and a bad situation.

        But by all means buy into propaganda that denies women the right to use their bodies as they see fit because of some outdated moral code.

        Nothing like the Great White Prudes to ride in an "save" women by making sure they have limited options to live!

      • while armed men hold your passport and other personal papers

        Of course, that is trafficking.

        But in most cases labeled "trafficking", that is not what is happening.

        A woman choosing to engage in prostitution because her kids are hungry is a BAD THING and should be addressed, but it is not "trafficking."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        No, that means you are in a very, very small group of people that have been excessively unlucky. Small enough to not be a factor in the greater scheme of things, just a concern for the local police to sort out.

        Forced prostitution basically does not exist in the modern world. It is not profitable. And in the rare cases were it happens, usually one of the first customers (often _the_ first one) informs the police, because unlike what "feminists" want to make us believe, men are not total scum in general.

        • Forced prostitution basically does not exist in the modern world. It is not profitable.

          What? Nonsense. The scale may be much smaller, but it's still clearly a thing. Here in the US there are semi-regular reports of massage parlors being busted for it, where all the employees are undocumented and kept alienated and isolated (and always from East Asia.)

  • You cannot have 3,000,000 people being displaced without predators descending. Hell, 3,000 would be more than enough to do that.

  • Many refugees stay in Ukraine. They move to another town or village, where they may have some relatives.

    Often they have to stay in substandard dwellings which may require a renovation. They also may encounter difficulties of finding an employment.

    A renovation of a house or an apartment in Ukraine by local specialists with some additional training and under qualified supervision could be an affordable project for the EU. It would provide quality accommodation, training, and jobs.

  • > "The Internet and human trafficking are interlinked," Europol stated in its report,

    You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Ban it! Ban it all!

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