Man arrested for ‘rapeing 19-year-old refugee after he moved’ after escaping from Ukraine to Poland

POLICE in Poland has arrested a man on suspicion of raping a refugee teenager after he promised her “help and shelter”.

The 19-year-old had just fled war-torn Ukraine when she was attacked by a 49-year-old man in Wroclaw, Poland.

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Police believe he promised her offers of help over the internet and could face up to 12 years of “brutal crimes”.

In a statement police said: “She escaped from war-torn Ukraine, speaking no Polish. She trusts a man who promises to help and protect her.

“Unfortunately, all of this turned out to be just fraudulent manipulation.”

Another case inside a refugee camp on the Polish border of Medyka saw officers interrogate a man after he only offered to help women and children – but changed his sentence. his story when questioned by the police.

A third man overheard a job and motel offer for a 16-year-old girl before authorities intervened.

As millions of women and children fleeing across the Ukrainian border face Russian attacks, concern grows about how to protect the most vulnerable refugees from being targeted by terrorists. traffickers or fall victim to other forms of exploitation.

The United Nations is concerned about the increasing number of people displaced by the invasion will be three times higher than expected.

That means the country – with a pre-invasion population of 44 million – will almost no women and children.

“Clearly all the refugees are women and children,” said Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, UNHCR’s head of global communications.

“You have to worry about any potential risks to human trafficking but also exploitation, exploitation and sexual abuse.

“These are the kinds of situations that people like traffickers seek to take advantage of.”

‘SIGNS FOR WORKING’

The United Nations refugee agency says more than 2.5 million people, including more than a million children, have left Ukraine.

Police in Berlin warned women and children in a social media post in Ukrainian and Russian not to accept offers to stay the night, and urged them to report anything suspicious. .

Tamara Barnett, operations director of the Anti-Trafficking Foundation, says such rapid mass movement could be a “recipe for disaster”.

“When you suddenly have a huge cohort of really vulnerable people who need immediate money and support,” she said.

“It is a breeding ground for situations of sexual exploitation and exploitation.

“When I see all these volunteers providing their homes, it worries me.”

Security officials in Romania and Poland say plainclothes intelligence officers are on the lookout for “criminal elements”.

Dayrina Kneziva, 25, fled from Kyiv to the Hungarian border and says you have to “choose what will be less dangerous.”

She added: “When you leave in a hurry, you just don’t think about other things.”

In the Romanian border town of Siret, authorities say men who offer free horseback riding to women have been driven away.

Madalina Mocan, committee director at ProTECT, said “there have been worrying signs”, with some refugees being offered shelter in exchange for services such as cleaning and babysitting, which This can lead to exploitation.

“There will be efforts by traffickers trying to get victims from Ukraine across the border,” she said.

“Women and children are vulnerable, especially those without connections – family, friends, other support networks.”

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