Vigilantes stalk Ukraine border as sex traffickers target fleeing women and children

Patrols of vigilantes are attempting to prevent children going missing and women being lured by suspected pimps at the Polish border

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Women and child refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine to Poland are being targeted by suspected pimps and sex traffickers operating alone and in gangs, according to charities working on the border.

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," said Karolina Wierzbiska, a coordinator at Homo Faber, a human rights organisation based in the Polish city of Lublin.