Strengthening capacity of the national police of Ukraine to combat trafficking in human beings, including cyber-enabled crime

Destroyed homes, being displaced to other regions in Ukraine or abroad by  the war, a shrinking economy, the loss of stable income, and a severely reduced number of jobs — all these factors make millions of Ukrainians vulnerable to trafficking of human beings. Amidst a large-scale humanitarian crisis, people are more likely to accept risky offers they would decline in better times. To make things worse, criminals are making maximum use of ICT technologies and using digital tools to enhance all stages of trafficking: from recruitment of potential victims to hiding illicit profits from exploiting them.

This project helps the National Police of Ukraine strengthen its effectiveness in combating crimes related to trafficking in human beings (THB), including cyber-enabled ones. There is a special emphasis on combating the sexual exploitation of children online. The project activities include training sessions on the investigation of THBTHB
Trafficking in human beings and cyber-enabled crimes, the provision of specialised software, and the development of a toolkit for interviewing sexually abused children. Moreover, the project will help design and implement awareness-raising campaigns to warn Ukrainians about trafficking risks and highlight the problem of online abuse of minors.

This effort is part of the OSCE Secretariat Extra-Budgetary Support Programme for Ukraine implemented with extra-budgetary contributions from the Organization's participating States; see the full list of the Programme's donors.