Fall in number of victims of human trafficking

According to estimates, the number of victims of labour exploitation in Ukraine has fallen in recent times. However a major obstacle to preventing the problem is insufficient international cooperation in this field.

Ukraine remains one of the main sources of victims of exploitation to European countries and the Middle East, in particular, Israel. In order to counter the problem, it is not enough to raise people’s awareness of the problem and potential dangers and improve domestic legislation. Closer international links are also needed to ensure efficient exchange of information. To this end the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the support of OSCE and the International Organization for Migration ran a special international seminar for profile NGOs from 18 countries where particular attention was given to trafficking in Ukraine.

According to Deputy Coordinator of the IOM Ukrainian Mission Oksana Horbunova the “peak in human trafficking of 2005 – 2006 is behind us. Since that time it has been possible to establish cooperation between civic organizations, State and law enforcement structures”.

At the same time, specialists do not exclude the possibility that the economic crisis could by the end of the year put an end to these optimistic trends.