Hackathon Finds Dozens of Ukrainian Refugees Trafficked Online

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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