»The demand for women and children from Ukraine has increased enormously«

On the dark web, men fantasize about private brothels with Ukrainian women or wait at the borders with minibuses and dubious job offers. The NGO International Justice Mission fights against human traffickers.

They distribute flyers, research the dark web and campaign for announcements on trains: The NGO International Justice Mission (IJM) fights modern slavery and forced prostitution worldwide. The organization is currently providing emergency aid and education at the Eastern European borders, where women fleeing Ukraine arrive. Dietmar Roller, Germany chairman of IJM eV, fears that human traffickers will massively exploit the plight of women and children.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Roller, what are your employees currently observing on site at the borders?

Roller: You report on men who drive minibuses to the borders or bus stations and specifically address women. These men offer Ukrainian women great jobs in London, Madrid or Germany. A volunteer recently observed a man trying to convince the grandmother of a 16-year-old to give him the girl. He doesn't have room for everyone in the car, but the girl is safe and can work in Berlin. Our employee prevented this; the man disappeared.

SPIEGEL : Do these problems only exist at the borders or also at German train stations?

Roller: In the beginning, the situation was chaotic, even at the major train stations in Germany. In Berlin, for example , anyone could put on an orange warning vest or hold up a sign: "You can live with me." There were no controls, and abuse was wide open. There were men who specifically asked for young women. The refugees were not even registered. This is extremely dangerous. If you are not registered, you do not exist for the authorities. It is then much more difficult later, for example for the police, to help these people.

SPIEGEL: Do you have experience with similar crises?

Roller: The current situation is comparable to that during the Yugoslav war, a kind of precedent. At that time there was a similar flight movement. A year later it was clear that numerous women from Bosnia had ended up in the brothels of Europe.

SPIEGEL: Do you have evidence that this is also happening now?

Roller: Human trafficking can only be proven once it has happened. That will be the case in six to eight months. But the evidence is very clear. The women and children arriving from Ukraine are precisely the vulnerable target group for human traffickers, and they are extremely vulnerable. In the beginning, Ukrainian women arrived in their own packed cars. There is now a kind of second wave; many come on foot and have lost everything. They are exhausted, disoriented and desperate, do not speak the local language, are without a male companion and often traumatized. Your powers of resistance are exhausted. First of all, thank you for any help. The human traffickers know this well and take advantage of it.

SPIEGEL: What are the criminal networks that are now becoming active there?

Scooter: The women and children are currently fleeing right along the human smugglers' routes that were established beforehand. There are the well-organized, large networks that work in Romania , Bulgaria , Moldova and the Ukraine, for example, and are active in the German red-light districts. On the other hand, there are also smaller structures, one could almost speak of »family companies«. Two, three, four people who then have someone on site in Germany. These groups often work with the loverboy scam, which has now partially replaced the hard trafficking in human beings.

SPIEGEL: Can you describe this method?

Roller: You manipulate vulnerable young women and girls in a targeted manner, fool them into relationships, make them dependent. A lover boy has maybe ten such girls who are then abducted. However, one can assume that in a situation of massive refugee movements such as we have now, classic methods of human trafficking will also take place, i.e. threats, brute force, the confiscation of passports and so on. The infrastructure already exists, the range of potential victims is now even greater – and so is the demand.

SPIEGEL: What do you mean by asking?

Roller: We know from porn sites, freelance forums and the dark web: The demand for women and children from Ukraine has increased enormously. On the Internet, men fantasize about setting up a small private brothel for themselves and their friends with two or three Ukrainian women. And where there is a market, it will also be served. Even before the war, most of the women forced into prostitution in Germany came from Eastern Europe , namely from Romania. However, these women were by no means all native Romanians; many came from Ukraine and other former Soviet Union countries. They were issued passports in Moldova, which was easy, but later they were given Romanian passports, which made an agreement between the two countries possible. This is how they got into the brothels of the EU through smuggling networks. The current refugee movement runs exactly along the traditional route of forced prostitution.

SPIEGEL: Who is particularly at risk?

Roller: On the one hand, of course, young women. But we are also seeing increased sexual exploitation of children online. There's this new method of abusing a child live at a distance; that has exploded during the pandemic. We are now seeing on the dark web that these fantasies are being described of getting a Ukrainian woman with children. If they then go to work, you have a clear path. Pedophile criminals are sure to take advantage of the situation now. In addition, we know scenes in Germany where minors are prostituted, for example in Berlin-Tiergarten, where it is mainly boys. You always need a refill.

SPIEGEL: Prostitution was legalized in Germany in 2000. Does that help in a situation like this or rather not?

Roller: The intentions were good, people thought – including me – that if the women were registered somewhere, then they would have a certain amount of protection. The reality is rather different. Within this legality, criminal business models have been able to develop very well. Unfortunately, we see this all over the world. It affects the whole field of modern slavery, not just forced prostitution.

SPIEGEL: You said that in around six to eight months it will be determined that there has been human trafficking and forced prostitution involving Ukrainian refugees. How is this revealed, through raids on brothels?

Roller: By women trying to get out of their situation. There are no longer any preventive raids on brothels in Germany, so concrete suspicion is needed. Brothels are legal. You can open a brothel faster in Germany than a chip shop. But there are social workers who are out and about on the streets and in brothels. These people are trained to recognize forced prostitution and inform the police.

SPIEGEL: What percentage of women in German brothels are victims of forced prostitution?

Roller:This cannot be said with certainty or scientifically proven. Aid organizations that speak to these women estimate that 70 to 80 percent are victims of human trafficking. Many would say at first that they do it voluntarily, but when you get to know them better, you realize that there is coercion behind it. Many have experienced violence and low self-esteem since childhood. Of course you have to be careful with such statements, I don't want to question the right of self-determination of women who decide to do this job. We are not against prostitution. We are against forced prostitution. Nevertheless: the more one is out and about in this milieu, the clearer it becomes: What one sees on talk shows, the brothel owner and the high-class whore who is talking there,

SPIEGEL: In its 2020 report, the BKA registered a total of 465 human trafficking cases.

Roller: In reality, of course, there are many more. In Germany we assume that there are between 100,000 and 400,000 women working in prostitution. It is often not possible for these women to make an independent statement to the police. You are being threatened. On the other hand, some of them also earn money to support their families, which they don't want to lose. In addition, women from non-EU countries are deported in Germany. This makes it impossible for Nigerian women, for example, to file a complaint. In other words, those women who are smuggled into the EU on refugee boats via the Africa route, via the old slave transshipment point in Libya .

SPIEGEL: What can you do at the borders now to protect refugees from Ukraine from such a situation?

Roller: We work closely with the BKA, LKA and Europol police authorities, who are very aware of the dangerous situation. Otherwise, we can only rely on prevention at the moment. We sensitize the helpers on site and distribute educational material. We also enclose our flyers with the emergency kits that the refugees receive. We strongly recommend that the women register, but also that they take photos, write down number plates and pass them on when they ride somewhere. There are announcements on trains in Poland and Romania warning women. It is much more difficult to put someone in a compulsive situation when he or she is educated and knows the pitfalls.