On the day after the 100th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, The duty focuses on the invisible victims of the conflict: Ukrainian women who have taken the road to exile, prey to sexual and financial exploitation.
Dance bars that display their “solidarity” with Ukrainian women by offering them to become strippers. Invitations to make “hot encounters” with “Ukrainians sexy on dating sites. Clients exchanging information about “new arrivals” from Ukraine in escort agencies and brothels. If Ukrainian women have always been popular in the global sex market, the game of supply and demand has literally exploded in recent months, note the organizations combating trafficking in women.
Since the start of the war, the New York-based Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) has observed what is happening in the “market” by browsing the sites where customers exchange information about the women they they buy for sexual services.
“We have seen an increase in demand from men who regularly inquire whether Ukrainian women have arrived at the neighborhood brothel,” denounces the general manager, Taïna Bien-Aimé.
In Europe, where the phenomenon is better documented, groups observed from the first weeks of the war that the industry offered young Ukrainian women as “fresh flesh” on escort sites, adds Diane Matte, coordinator of the Quebec organization Concertation for the fight against sexual exploitation (CLES). “Even here you can see it, but not as much as in Europe. »
In mid-May, the New York Post reported that in Las Vegas, the owner of a strip club displayed his “solidarity” with Ukraine on a large billboard in the colors of the blue and yellow flag by inviting Ukrainian women to audition to become erotic dancers . “It was his way of helping Ukraine,” says Diane Matte with a sigh.
For her, it is clear that the stereotypes associated with Eastern European women weigh heavily in the balance. “Blue-eyed blondes are part of the fantasy par excellence. The sex industry, which is deeply racist, makes money off of this fantasy. The owner of this Las Vegas bar wouldn’t do that if it was foreign women. »
On its Facebook page, the French organization StopFisha, which fights against sexual cyberviolence, presented last February a document in which he denounced the fact that searches for the terms ” ukrainian girls ” and ” ukrainian porn had increased dramatically during the first days of the war.
A quick Google Trend search confirms the skyrocketing use of the words ” ukrainian porn in the first weeks of the conflict, both in Canada and in other countries. Since then, demand has run out of steam and is now back to what it was in the months before the Russian invasion.
Dating website
« Get a hot date with a Ukrainian girl sexy. The message, laden with hearts, fires and kisses, ended up in the mailbox of a Taïna Bien-Aimé employee from the first days of the conflict. The ad leads to a dating site that offers men to find a soul mate among its “Ukrainian beauties”.
These kinds of specialized sites for meeting Ukrainian women — who play on the stereotypes of the beautiful and docile woman — have been around for a long time, but they have been gaining popularity in recent months, according to Dimitri Bereznyakov, owner of the marriage agency ukReine. com, based in Quebec.
While his business was in decline due to strong competition on the Internet, the Quebec businessman of Ukrainian origin, who claims to run a serious agency, notes that “the number of visits has tripled” since the start of the war. “On the other hand, it has become complicated to have interested women. When you’re under the bombs, you obviously don’t think about meeting someone. »
Among the men who were looking for a soul mate, some asked to be put in contact free of charge with the women they liked to offer them accommodation. Mr. Bereznyakov refused, but he still made a list of men willing to help and women who asked for assistance in their efforts to connect them.
One case, however, went wrong, admits Mr. Berezniakov. A woman, contacted by a man who was guiding her on her journey across Europe to reach France, is said to have disappeared halfway, somewhere in Romania. “As soon as we found out, we stopped all that quickly. »
Well-established networks
Ukraine is one of the countries most targeted by traffickers, and has been for a very long time, recalls Delphine Pinault, coordinator for the CARE organization. In Canada, it is estimated that approximately 600 women and children enter the country each year for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The victims come mainly from Asia and Eastern Europe.
“Organized crime networks with ties to Eastern Europe are involved in the organized smuggling of women from the former Soviet Union into Canada for employment in escort services in the Greater Toronto Area , and possibly in massage establishments and escort services in the Montreal area,” reads a government document.
Contacted by The duty who wanted to know if there was an upsurge in human trafficking from Ukraine and if vigilance had been increased, the RCMP did not answer us. For its part, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) returned The duty to its website on human trafficking at borders.
Ukrainian Canadian Congress
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) is worried about its nationals. At a meeting of pan-Canadian aid organizations held on March 29, the risk of Ukrainian women falling into the hands of Canadian traffickers was discussed, as evidenced by speaking notes to which The duty had access.
In an interview, the honorary consul of Ukraine in Montreal and former president of the Ukrainian World Congress, Eugène Czolij, does not hide his concern either. “Obviously we are concerned. It must be ensured that women and children who leave a hellish situation do not become victims of human trafficking in another country. »
Internationally, information is being distributed to Ukrainian women so they can learn about the risks, he says. In Montreal, an agreement has been signed with the City to verify people who volunteer to offer housing to refugees on the UCC site. “We cannot protect everyone 100%, but we try, with our various organizations, to give as much information as possible, because an informed person is worth two”, summarizes Mr. Czolij.