Countering Human Trafficking: Identifying, Returning and Assisting Victims from Ukraine

The emergence of atypical human trafficking schemes poses new challenges to Ukraine’s authorities in terms of identifying, returning and assisting the trafficking victims. The most problematic cases feature the involvement of trafficking victims into criminal activities abroad. As the public authorities often fail in making a coordinated effort and in gaining the trust of the trafficking victims, the successful response to human trafficking continues to depend considerably on the active engagement of non-governmental and international organisations, as well as private persons. The state, however, has already accumulated sufficient experience in order to proactively assume its responsibility for the victims. In order to raise the level of trust towards the competent institutions and ensure an improved response to human trafficking, the state must address the remaining legislative gaps, improve the coordination between the responsible agencies and ensure that their personnel is properly trained and adheres to the principle of confidentiality towards the trafficking victims.