Paris - (AFP) - Newly arrived Ukrainian refugee women in France are an "easy target" for prostitution networks and also for those seeking to shelter them with bad intentions, which raises great concern for the authorities and human rights bodies.

These incidents began in early March, when the first batch of displaced Ukrainians arrived in France. A man standing in front of a reception center newly opened by the non-governmental association "France Terre d'Azelle" (France Land of Refuge) in the north of Paris, caused great concern, after he offered me Two Ukrainian refugees to "work" for him.

The general director of the association, Delphine Royo, told AFP, "The man was luring Ukrainian women in line! And the police have tightened their control since that incident."

It was also recorded that there was a man who wanted to host refugee women, claiming that he represented an unknown association, in addition to the return of a number of refugee women to the association’s center “not reassured” after spending their first nights in one of the “solidarity hosting centers”, which are supposed to be charitable and highly reliable entities. to receive refugees in France.

All the parties supervising the Ukrainian exodus for weeks have paid great attention to the dangers faced by Ukrainian women, who together with their children represent 90% of the Ukrainian refugees.

Europol said at the end of March that these refugee women are vulnerable to "attraction of individual aggressors, opportunists posing as volunteers, and criminal networks specialized in human trafficking."

These risks increase at the first station that the refugees reach, such as the Polish or Romanian borders, but they continue until they reach France, where “no case of trafficking has been proven” at this stage, according to what Elizabeth Maron-Broux, Secretary General of the “Meprov” ministerial mission in charge of combating, confirms. Trafficking in Human Beings.

"On the other hand, social service workers record doubts and alerts that are the subjects of reports, so we are in the prevention phase," she says, adding, "We know the details of these risks because we experienced them previously during the migration crisis that took place in 2015, when many Nigerian minors were recruited into networks." prostitution.

Maron-Broux believes that Ukrainian women represent "easy prey", especially since trafficking networks in Eastern Europe are already active.
And she confirms that what worries the French authorities in particular is "the risks of trafficking emanating from individuals who host women and exploit their vulnerability, which represents the greatest danger as a result of this crisis."

Some of the hosting offers are deeply resented by the associations. An employee responsible for checking thousands of offers in one of the associations, who refused to reveal her name, says that some offers "indicate, for example, that the host party receives only a young Ukrainian woman without children, while other offers explicitly indicate that they are directed to a woman + blonde with blue eyes + for example."
The "France Terre d'Azil" association has begun to implement control measures, by asking the host, for example, to check its criminal record, or to visit the hosting places and make sure that a "social follow-up" is conducted in them.
Delphine Royo says, "We explain to them very well that it is not related to hosting in return for providing certain services. Because trafficking is not limited to sexual goals, but can happen to women with the aim of getting them to do housework or take care of children throughout the day."
Celine Schmidt, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in France, says that refugee women should "never give their identity papers" and should "beware of unbelievably tempting offers," calling for "tightening" monitoring mechanisms in order to "check" everything. Offers with good intentions.
The Ukrainian community is also mobilizing to support often stressed Ukrainian women. "We accompany them to inspect the apartment and talk to those responsible for receiving them... as we try to reduce the risks," said Nadya Mihal, head of the Association of Ukrainian Women in France, adding, "We focus on families or women, and if the person involved is a refugee man, we do not provide assistance."
Royo says that all these efforts are not able to solve the whole situation because revealing the problems that are happening behind closed doors is a difficult process.