Russia: Recruitment of foreign nationals to fight in Ukraine amounts to human trafficking
Amnesty International reports that Russia is using deceptive and coercive tactics to recruit foreign nationals from low-income countries for the war in Ukraine. The organization classifies these practices as human trafficking, noting that recruits are often misled about their roles and denied the ability to leave.
Why it matters
This highlights a significant human rights concern regarding the exploitation of vulnerable populations in the context of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russia has used deceptive, coercive and exploitative practices to recruit foreign nationals into its military forces and send them to fight in Ukraine, Amnesty International said in a new briefing published today. In many cases this amounts to the human rights violation and crime of human trafficking, which remains widespread in Russia and which the international community should urgently address.
The research details how recruiters have lured individuals from abroad into the Russian Armed Forces under false pretences and exploited the precarious circumstances of migrants and refugees already present in Russia. Those targeted are primarily from low-income countries in the Global South.
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