Ukrainian refugees in Europe face surge in sexual violence – study
Researchers have noticed an increase in interest in “Ukrainian porn” in Europe and fear the risks associated with it.
In Europe, refugees from Ukraine may face a wave of “sexualized violence”. The growing threat of this is stated in a study by Thomson Reuters, conducted jointly with the OSCE, writes The Guardian.
The research team chose global search traffic from February 24, 2022 as the field of their study. Observations have revealed that among European Internet users there has been a significant increase in interest in pornographic materials involving or on the topic of Ukrainian refugees.
Thomson Reuters researchers believe that the increased interest in “Ukrainian porn” (Ukrainian porn) may lead to an increase in the number of cases of “cyber-voyeurism” against Ukrainian women and, even worse, the sexual exploitation of refugees from Ukraine.
“The high demand from men for sexual access to Ukrainian women and girls creates a huge incentive for traffickers to recruit vulnerable people to meet this demand and profit from it,” said OSCE Special Representative Valiant Ritchie.
He claims that researchers have already identified cases where Ukrainian refugees have been offered jobs in the “sex industry” in chat rooms. The researchers also noticed that the scale of online advertising of sex services allegedly provided by Ukrainian women has grown.
Ukrainian refugees in Europe
According to the UN, there were just under 5 million Ukrainian refugees in Europe in January. Probably, by now this number has decreased somewhat.
At the same time, many refugees do not hide the fact that they intend to stay in Europe and do not plan to return to their homeland. For example, in Poland there are about half of them.
After a year of war, the European authorities are gradually tightening the rules for the stay of Ukrainian refugees on their territory. Ukrainians are left with fewer benefits, more responsibilities.