Latest news with #YlvaJohansson
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
EU names special envoy for Ukrainian refugees, POLITICO reports
Ylva Johansson, former European Commissioner for Home Affairs, will serve as the European Union's new special envoy for Ukrainians in the bloc, POLITICO reported on June 12. According to anonymous officials that spoke to POLITICO, Johansson will fill the newly created post, overseeing the Commission's long-term strategy for Ukrainian refugees currently residing in the European Union. Johansson, a former Swedish minister and European Commission official, previously visited Ukraine on several occasions, including a refugee camp on the border with Romania. She received the Ukrainian order of merit in September 2024. As special envoy, Johansson will be responsible for EU initiatives focused on helping Ukrainian refugees transition into permanent legal statuses or return home. As part of these initiatives, the EU will launch "unity hubs" – information centers jointly managed with the Ukrainian government. The hubs will support Ukrainian refugees to integrate with EU host countries or repatriate to Ukraine. Germany, which has has taken in more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees since the start of the full-scale invasion, recently committed to establishing unity hubs in Berlin. The unity hubs in Berlin will provide Ukrainians with access to educational and career opportunities both in Ukraine and Germany. The European Commission also recently extended temporary protection Ukrainian refugees who fled to the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to Eurostat, 4.26 million Ukrainians currently hold temporary protection status in the EU as of April 2025. Read also: Germany to supply new Iris-T air defense systems to Ukraine, rules out Taurus missiles We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Euronews
08-04-2025
- Euronews
EU reports surge in human trafficking as female victims outnumber male
ADVERTISEMENT Around 10,793 victims of human trafficking were registered in the EU in 2023, an increase of 6.9% compared with the previous year, according to the latest Eurostat figures. So far, this is the highest recorded value between 2008 and 2023. In 2023, there were 24 registered victims of trafficking in human beings per one million inhabitants in the EU - a rise from 23 registered victims per one million inhabitants in 2022. The highest rates in the EU were observed in Luxembourg, Greece, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden, while the lowest rates were observed in Croatia, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic. "Higher rates could be linked to a greater capacity of the judiciary and social system to identify victims," Eurostat said. "This can be seen in Luxembourg, where previous efforts, including a proactive attitude by labour inspectors who participated in mandatory training courses on human trafficking, has contributed to the identification of more victims." Trafficking in humans does not require the crossing of borders and can have many exploitative purposes. In 2023, for the EU as a whole, 28% of the registered victims came from the reporting country, 7.9% from other EU countries and 64.1% from non-EU countries Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland reported mostly victims from their own countries, while more than 80% of the registered victims in Austria, Malta, Slovenia, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Finland, Luxembourg, Italy, and Estonia came from non-EU countries. Related Ylva Johansson: 'Impunity is over' for human trafficking in the European Union Female victims outnumber male Nearly two-thirds of the registered victims of human trafficking were women or girls. The share of women and girls increased by 0.5 percentage points from 2022. Among the registered victims whose form of exploitation was reported, sexual exploitation was the predominant form of exploitation in 2023, at 43.8%, although the share of sexual exploitation gradually decreased throughout 2008 to 2023. There was a jump in the number of registered victims trafficked for forced labour or services. Between 2008 and 2018, the share of victims trafficked for forced labour and services stood between 14% and 21%, and from 2019 onwards, the share was between 28% and 41%. Organ removal and other exploitative purposes, including use for benefit fraud, criminal activities and forced begging, were at 20.2% in 2023. Meanwhile, the proportion of women among the traffickers is much lower compared with the proportion of men. ADVERTISEMENT Less than a quarter of suspected and convicted traffickers were women, at 24% and 23%, respectively. The number of suspected traffickers was 8,471 in 2023 – an increase of 5% compared to the previous year. The number of convicted traffickers increased in the EU by 10.1% between 2022 and 2023. The number of people convicted of trafficking in human beings also saw a rise in 15 out of 26 EU countries. ADVERTISEMENT
