'Pimps' are stalking Poland's railway stations and border crossings targeting vulnerable women and children refugees fleeing Ukraine, charity groups warn

• A charity worker in Poland said predators were luring women into cars, the Guardian reported.
• Vulnerable Ukrainian refugees are targeted by traffickers as they reach neighboring countries, charities warn.

Women and children fleeing Ukraine are being preyed upon by traffickers in neighboring countries, charity groups have warned.

Karolina Wierzbińska, a coordinator at Homo Faber, a human rights organization based in Lublin, Poland, told The Guardian that charity workers had witnessed refugees being targeted as they arrived in the country.

"We've registered the first cases of [suspected] pimps preying on Ukrainian women near refugee shelter points in Lublin; accosting them, sometimes aggressively, under the guise of offering transport, work or accommodation," Wierzbińska told The Guardian.

Teams of predators were seen "pretending to offer rides or lodging to women distressed and exhausted from their journey," Wierzbińska told the paper.

These teams were not only made of men, as women and couples had also been seen approaching female refugees at bus stations, she said.

Wierzbińska previously told The Guardian that there had also been instances of children going missing after being sent across the border alone by desperate parents.

Charity groups fear that women could be forced into slavery or prostitution, and children could be kidnapped and sold to criminal gangs.

Police in Wrocław, Poland, said they arrested a 49-year-old man suspected of raping a 19-year-old Ukrainian woman who he offered a place to stay, France24 reported.

Traffickers are believed to be taking advantage of the chaos

More than 3.7 million people are believed to have fled from Ukraine since Russia began its military invasion a month ago, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

The vast majority of these refugees, over 2 million, have fled to Poland.

Representatives for the UN Refugee Agency said that almost 90% of the refugees are women and children, as men of fighting age have been banned from leaving the country.

"For predators and human traffickers, the war in Ukraine is not a tragedy," Secretary-General of the UN António Guterres wrote on Twitter. "It's an opportunity – and women and children are the targets."

As refugees flood across the border into Poland, thousands of volunteers have stepped to offer them food, housing, and free transportation.

Amnesty International reported that volunteers were far more visible and active than government authorities in the places it visited in Poland, including the border crossing at Medyka and train stations in Przemysl and Warsaw.

While police have increased their presence in recent days to more thoroughly check the identity of volunteers and drivers offering lifts to refugees, many cars still pass without being stopped, The Guardian reported.

Traffickers are believed to be taking advantage of the chaos and disorganization to prey on distressed refugees.

Nils Muižnieks, Europe Regional Director at Amnesty International, said that the efforts of Polish volunteers should be commended, but authorities need to do more to protect refugees.

"Solidarity shown by volunteers in Poland has been remarkable, but without central authorities taking responsibility and concerted action, people in need of protection and assistance risk falling through the cracks," Muižnieks said.

Reports of predators taking advantage of vulnerable refugees have also been reported by charity workers in countries like Slovakia and Germany, according to The Huffington Post.

Hillary Margolis, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that as refugees become hungrier and weaker they are more likely to end up in unsafe situations.

"People will do things that they might not think they would do because they're literally starving, need medical care and a place to stay," Margolis told the outlet.