SW News: Caritas Spain has allocated 214,000 euros to prevent human trafficking in Ukraine, where thousands of children have been forcibly relocated to Russia due to the war. More than 100,000 youngsters are victims of sexual or labor exploitation.

Minors are also used to compel people to enlist in the military or traffic illegal organs.

According to Caritas Spain, most of the documented cases of sexual violence committed by Russian troops have taken place in occupied areas over the past year. Caritas has also noticed a rise in similar circumstances both in the war-affected country and in the transit nations. They have also verified thousands of instances of sexual abuse that occurred in exchange for favors or for pure survival.

Carmen Gómez de Barreda, the coordinator of the Caritas with Ukraine campaign in Spain, emphasized that victims of trafficking hardly ever seek assistance from governmental agencies.

They turn to Caritas in response, since the state, like the local authorities; does not have the capacity to deal with the problem.

Gómez de Barreda criticized the fact that the majority of social organizations solely concentrate on prevention but not on providing reintegration services to survivors. “In order to avoid this pandemic, identify the victims among the most vulnerable population, and offer them services for their social reintegration, the 214,000 euros are going to a program,” he said.

Barreda asserted that in the first place, attention will be given to internally displaced persons, those who were captured by the occupiers, asylum seekers who have returned, labor migrants, and traditionally vulnerable people.
About 250 victims and their families will receive direct assistance and protection from this effort over the course of two years. More than 150 people could gain something indirectly.