In February, the world witnessed what will be one of the worst-cases of armed conflict in Europe, producing a staggering 4,019,287 refugees as of 30th of March (UNHCR, 2022), with over 2.3 million refugees fleeing to Poland (Aljazeera, 2022). Women and children account for 90% of this figure. The speed and scale of the exodus has been described as “unprecedented” in Europe since World War II. However, this has only raised concerns and predictions on the exploitation of vulnerable and internally displaced people by human traffickers. While human trafficking is usually not the main focus in humanitarian crises like the Russian-Ukraine war and is sometimes omitted from formulations of emergency and humanitarian responses, there is no doubt that armed conflict creates a climate of impunity suited for human trafficking operations (U.S. Department of State, 2016). This presentation seeks to amplify this omission by answering the question: “What role does war play in the growth of human trafficking and how are victims of war protected from further exploitation? A desk-based methodology analyzing a broad selection of journal articles, cases and newspaper reports is used to explore the link between armed conflict and human trafficking, while considering the forms of trafficking during war, modus operandi of traffickers during war, the impact of armed conflict on victims of war (internally displaced and vulnerable persons alike), trends and forms of trafficking in armed conflict, prevention, protection, investigation and prosecution measures, and policies to protect victims and implementation challenges. The presentation concludes with recommendations for further research on both trafficker and victim identification during war, development of dynamic patterns for better investigation and prosecution of traffickers, as well as prioritization of human trafficking prevention and investigative measures within emergency and humanitarian responses during armed conflict.
Faith Tunde-Yara is an enthusiastic legal researcher with over 8 years of research in human trafficking and criminal law. She is a current PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town, conducting research on the Illegal Organ Trade in Africa focusing on obtainable variations and legislative loopholes in the Organ Trafficking Framework.