Ukrainian child refugees face trafficking peril as MEPs call for action

The European Commission and the French Presidency of the Council have developed a 10-point plan to help safeguard children and young people who are fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Temporary protection status was activated for refugees from Ukraine, giving them temporary residence rights and access to education and the labour market in the European Union.
The plan includes an EU registration platform and coordination on transport, as well as specific guidelines for the reception and support of children in cooperation with the European Union Agency for Asylum.

It also includes a common anti-trafficking to keep children and young people away from abusers.

“We are hearing worse and worse news every day, and we are not talking about what’s happening at the front. This macabre scene on the streets. It seems day by day there’s a fight between humanity and evil,” said socialists and democrats president Iratxe García Pérez.

Commission Vice President Dubravka Šuica said children’s rights were human rights, and that every child deserves to grow up safe and happy.

“Children are still trapped in shelters, braving bombing and gunfire. Look at what has happened in Bucha,” Šuica said, referring to the grisly discovery of mass graves and many civilians summarily executed, raped and mutilated.

“Due to the war and ensuing mass exodus of people from Ukraine unaccompanied minors and children are at high risk of abuse and exploitation, legal guardians should be assigned as quickly as possible and foster families should be vetted so that children don’t end up with abusers, we need systems for education, healthcare and psychosocial support,” Šuica said.

Ylva Johansson, Commissioner for Home Affairs, that approximately 2 million children had escaped Ukraine with their lives, but now faced a new danger of trafficking. “There are no confirmed cases yet, but we know from bitter experience that the danger is real,” she said

Johansson explained how Europol has set up a specific task force to combat human trafficking and they are training border guards specifically to identify cases of trafficking.

MEP Ewa Kopaczof (EPP) said the EP had to give chidlren refugees everything that the Russian aggression deprived them of. However Kopacz warned against naivété; “there will be people that will try and make use of the victims of this war.”

García Pérez highlighted that all parties concerned shouldn’t forget that children were still children, “they need places to play, they need school, they need psychosocial support.”

She said the onus was on the EU to ensure refugees are evacuated safely because “there are people that pretend to help and instead exploit women and children... Although some may think it seems unattainable, everyone should continue to strive for a world built of peace and solidarity.”

 Jadwiga Wiśniewska (ECR), despite sharing in her condemnation of the horrors emerging daily and also equal in her conviction to protect the children, struck out at EU hypocrisy. “In the last few weeks two and a half million Ukrainians have fled to Poland, and some 160,000 children have access to the Polish educational system... we have received two and a half million refugees but what funds have we received?”

“We have all this emotional talk, but what is the EU doing?, Sanctioning Poland!” Wiśniewska said said, referring to Article 7 actions against Poland over rule of law breaches. “If MEPs are talking about human rights, they are being violated because the sanctions are not effective.”

 Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than four million people have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge elsewhere, mostly in neighboring EU countries, namely Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. as well as in the Republic of Moldova. According to UNICEF almost half of those fleeing the conflict are minors who need enhanced protection, as they run a bigger risk of falling victim to trafficking and exploitation.