Human trafficking and slave labor increase during conflict in Ukraine

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — As the war in Ukraine drags on, there is a steady increase in human trafficking according to Dr. Laura Dean, political science professor at Millikin University in Decatur.

“The vast majority of cases that they’ve seen are actually labor trafficking and it’s mostly men,” Dean told WAND News. “War exacerbates trafficking because it creates vulnerabilities that didn’t exist because people are unemployed. People are moving. So, we’re seeing the largest movement of people since World War Two.”

Dean spent over two weeks in Ukraine this past march.

She writes and does research into human trafficking and directs the Human Trafficking Research Lab.

Millikin University is home to the only undergraduate research lab focusing on human trafficking in the state of Illinois.