OSCE General Secretary Helga Schmid said in an interview with Die Welt that after the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the number of cases of human trafficking in Europe has increased dramatically. The risk of Ukrainian women falling into sexual slavery has increased, and the number of cases of trafficking in pregnant women has also increased. Potential victims are lured with false announcements of help abroad; there are known cases when human traffickers have intercepted women right at the border.
According to Schmid, the situation with human trafficking has worsened worldwide: «Now we estimate the number of victims from 25 to 27 million per year, and, unfortunately, only 10 thousand of these cases come to the attention of law enforcement agencies every year. It is possible to identify less than one per cent of the victims, so the criminals mostly remain unpunished».