Human trafficking in Ukraine

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In 2008, Ukraine was a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked transnationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.

Ukrainian women were trafficked to Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Austria, Germany, United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Greece, Sweden, Spain, Croatia, Hungary, Slovak Republic, Cyprus, Netherlands, Belarus, Japan, Norway, South Korea, and Bahrain. The majority of Ukrainian labor trafficking victims were men exploited in Russia, the Czech Republic and Poland, primarily forced to work as construction laborers, sailors, and factory and agriculture workers.

There were indications Ukraine is a destination for people from neighboring countries trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation. In addition, trafficking occurred within Ukraine; men and women were trafficked within the country for the purposes of labor exploitation in the agriculture and service sectors, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced begging. Ukrainian children were trafficked both internally and transnationally for commercial sexual exploitation, forced begging, and involuntary servitude in the agriculture industry. An IOM survey released in December 2006 concluded that since 1991, approximately 117,000 Ukrainians had been forced into exploitative situations in Europe, the Middle East, and Russia.

In 2008 the Government of Ukraine did not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it was making significant efforts to do so. While there was little evidence of efforts to curb trafficking complicity of government officials and of concrete steps to protect and assist trafficking victims at the national level, local governments made some progress on victim assistance. The government also made modest, but tangible, progress in improving the punishment of convicted traffickers, prosecuting labor trafficking, training the judiciary, and carrying out prevention activities.^[1]

The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2017^[2] and 2023.^[3]

In 2023, the Organised Crime Index gave the country a score of 7.5 out of 10 for human trafficking.^[4]