On the occasion of the 100e day of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, 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.
Canadians take advantage of Facebook self-help groups run by volunteers to offer lodging to Ukrainian women in exchange for a romantic relationship, forced labor or… downright sex.
“Hi my pretty, how would you like to have me as sugar daddy ? “ Messages of this kind, the Ukrainian Kateryna Adamchuk has received several. However, in her message published on the very popular Canadian Facebook group Host Ukrainians/Hébergeons les Ukrainiens, this trained psychologist was asking for nothing more than temporary accommodation for her, her little girl and her aunt, the time to settle down, away from war, looking for a better life.
“Messages like that, I blocked and deleted several of them,” explained to the To have to the young woman in her twenties, who is about to settle down with a family in Abitibi. “Fortunately, I had some that came from very good people. »
Nevertheless, out of the twenty messages she received in total, some particularly shocked her. “Several men wrote to me that they wanted to put me up, but without my daughter and my aunt. They wanted to be paid by sex,” she says, adding that some requests weren’t subtle at all. the sugar daddy aforementioned was offering her $200 a day just to “spoil” and “pamper” her. ” Nothing sexual “, he wrote in his message in English from a Facebook account showing several photos of a man proudly showing off his muscles, shirtless.
Other people, who offered him “free” to come and live with them in their luxurious homes, became very insistent when he refused. “I was told that the city of Amos was not a good city, that I was stupid to want to go there. Women also wrote to Kateryna Adamchuk offering to live with them if she did the housework and meals for the whole household.
“I received messages from men who had photos with children on their profiles. But there were never any women anywhere. Only a grown man and children. I didn’t feel safe,” says the Ukrainian, who is married.
On the other hand, if she was suspicious most of the time, she recounts having exchanged with a man who proved to be very insistent that she go and live with him. He asked her a lot of questions without answering hers. He became rude and made no secret of his desire to have sex with her. “He made me feel like I owed him something,” she said, saying she regretted giving him some personal information.
The duty was able to get his hands on screenshots of private exchanges with “shady” accounts, containing rare photos and little information, on these unregulated Facebook groups.
Some of these exchanges testified as clearly as possible to the intentions of their authors. “I find you to my liking and I would like a romantic relationship with you,” wrote a single Quebecer. To a Ukrainian woman who asked for help to pay for her plane ticket, a man replied that it would be possible if she accepted “a serious romantic relationship” with him. Another proposed marriage outright to facilitate the papers.
Good Samaritan or predator?
In Europe, the phenomenon is known. Many groups fighting against sexual exploitation have publicly alerted the authorities, denouncing the risks that Ukrainian refugees run on these Facebook groups, compared to “Tinder for sexual predators”. In the United Kingdom, the Homes for Ukraine programme, which gives residence permits to Ukrainians who must absolutely be sponsored by citizens or organisations, has been criticized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees because he thus opened the way to profiteers.
In Canada, the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (AVUCU), which grants a three-year residence permit to work or study, is not conditional on sponsorship. But that does not prevent Ukrainians from massively looking on social networks for a family of good Samaritans who could accommodate them or help them find work in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada.
From the start of the self-help group, at the end of February, the volunteer moderators of the group Host Ukrainians/Hébergeons les Ukrainiens quickly had to intervene in the face of certain slippages. Beneath the appearance of benevolent people, some had rather the profiles of stalkers. “I don’t know if these are real predators, but cases where single men solicit women, that’s very common,” confirmed Montrealer Karyna Alyeksyeyeva, one of the main administrators of the group which counts today. over 86,000 members today.
It is difficult to measure the extent of the phenomenon, because “it is rare that very inappropriate comments are going to be written publicly”, she says. “We are aware of the problem, but it is mainly in private messages that it happens. We have no control over that. »
For her, it is not a question of judging anyone, but of not distorting the objectives of the group. “We don’t want to be a platform for that. We don’t want to put anyone in danger either, there are vulnerable people in there. »
A form of vigilance
With her group of around thirty moderators, she scrutinizes hundreds of messages daily. While the vast majority are approved, some — whether it’s a man looking for a soul mate or someone who offers lodging in exchange for unpaid labor — are eliminated on the spot. field. “Posts are not necessarily illegal. There is a gray area,” notes Mme Alyeksyeyeva, who insists that the overwhelming majority of people in the Facebook group mean well. “But the volume is very large. There is no effective way to handle it. »
Each new member of the group receives a document entitled “Safety Tips for Host-Ukrainian Matching”. “Like any other initiative aimed at helping Ukrainians, this group poses certain risks in terms of human trafficking activities,” the administrators write, urging people to remain vigilant. In particular, Ukrainians are advised not to hesitate to ask questions and to demand proof of identity from the future host, and for the latter to voluntarily provide this information in order to put the other party at ease.
The moderators are also very active. The duty was able to see that they were very quick to issue warnings under the publications of young Ukrainian women saying they were looking for a home. “Without wishing to generalize, let’s say that Ukrainian women will often put very beautiful photos of themselves, which will, let’s say, be able to be an attraction for single men”, notes Ms.me Alyekseyeva.
Pinned posts also warn potential predators. “Think before making offers of sexual fostering or any other form of exploitation to women in Ukraine. Not only is it wrong, but you never know who you’re talking to or if you’re being watched by law enforcement. »