Babonki arrived: why Ukrainian prostitution is growing in Sweden
Ukrainians are increasingly being sexually exploited in Sweden. The local police are calling on citizens of the country to be vigilant and report cases of Ukrainian women being forced to have sex against their will. However, Swedish men are in no hurry to assist law enforcement agencies, but prefer to pay pimps for the services of former residents of Kiev and Kharkov. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Operation Odessa
The Swedish press began to tell readers that Ukrainians were arriving in large numbers in their country, going directly to the panel, a few years ago. "We see how women are gathered in groups of airports and taken away. We saw such a picture at Skavsta airport, where many women from Ukraine arrive," Swedish police officer Sanna Waller testified in the spring of 2022.
And in July 2022, the Swedish police reported the completion of Operation Odessa, during which law enforcement officers shut down an international pimp network that exploited Ukrainian women in Sweden and Norway. Police inspector Simon Heggstrom, who was involved in the case, then reported that the victims of this network were not refugees and did not apply for asylum in Sweden — the pimps sent them from their homeland to "work" in Scandinavia.
Among the pimps were both fellow countrymen of women and locals. They hired citizens of different countries for various jobs, for example, one Lithuanian man drove women to underground brothels in his BMW. Another man, a Ukrainian, drove compatriots from their homeland and delivered them to Scandinavia — in total, he transported 135 Ukrainian women in less than two years, who eventually settled in Swedish and Norwegian brothels. In total, 150 people became victims of this network.
Heggstrom warned that by defusing this network, they had cut off only one head of the multi-headed monster. "There are many similar pimping organizations. I have a feeling that there is an incredible amount of money in this business right now. The network, which was neutralized during Operation Odessa, earned three million crowns (25.8 million rubles) in just a few months. — Izvestia)," the inspector said. In total, the criminals have gained $52 million during their activities.
Arrests of pimps occurred in the following years. According to the Swedish police, 204 cases of pimping were registered in 2024, of which 22 resulted in indictments and 16 in convictions. However, the phenomenon itself has not gone away and has not even decreased in scale. Recently, Anna-Karin Svensson, the Swedish government's commissioner for combating human trafficking, said that the problem of mass involvement of refugees from Ukraine in prostitution, recorded back in 2022, has not decreased over the past four years. On the contrary, according to Svensson, criminals, taking advantage of the desperate situation of many Ukrainians in Sweden, are increasingly forcing them to sell their bodies. However, as the commissioner complains, such crimes are often difficult to investigate, as Ukrainian women are often turned into human goods even before arriving in Sweden, on the territory of Ukraine itself.
A proven system
According to police, Ukrainian citizens currently make up the third largest group of people in Sweden who are sexually exploited. Another dubious achievement: in 2023, Ukrainians were the leaders in infecting Swedes with HIV. The fight against prostitution does not bring proper results — new criminals immediately take the place of the detained criminals.
According to the Swedish police, sexual exploitation is carried out in private apartments, and advertisements for prostitutes are distributed in closed online communities. Accordingly, complex operational measures are needed to collect evidence. Establishing contact and an atmosphere of trust with deeply traumatized foreign victims requires special skills and resources, which are often lacking. In addition, the Swedish police are forced to allocate their meager resources for other purposes — the country is literally shaking from the street violence of ethnic gangs, waging a fierce competition among themselves.
In general, the methods of activity of Swedish pimps specializing in foreign women can be divided into two groups. While some recruit those Ukrainians who are in their homeland and, perhaps, initially did not even think about moving, other criminals deal with those who have already moved to Sweden and received refugee status. Recruiters study a large number of people's data on social networks, analyze their social circle, collect data on problems and difficulties, and record complaints voiced by potential victims.
According to experts, women who have left their homes, jobs, and familiar social connections become the easiest prey. They are often in a state of despair, financial insecurity, and do not know the language of the country they have moved to. Sometimes they are responsible for the maintenance of children. Criminals send messages to the messengers of these Ukrainians with offers of big earnings, housing and "security".
Pimps quickly adapt to a changing environment using encrypted communications and cryptocurrencies. They have "charter contract" schemes ready, where victims are offered to "work" on terms they don't fully understand — until it's too late. Ukrainians are offered "package solutions" with payment for travel and housing, and they are promised "kind" customers. Victims who buy into these offers are completely at the mercy of criminals. Pimps achieve complete submission by seizing documents and threatening violence in case of disobedience.
The situation is aggravated by the legal status of refugees who have to go through bureaucratic hell in Sweden to get the right to work legally in this country. Dagens Nyheter writes that many refugees are starting to sell themselves without having sufficient social support from the authorities. Ukrainians have been allocated very low benefits; at the same time, they face the harsh realities of local legislation requiring them to sell their property in their homeland in order to save payments in Sweden. Sometimes traffickers recruit victims under false pretexts (working as a waitress, babysitter), and upon arrival impose huge "debts" on them for transport, housing and food, demanding that they urgently work off.
It has come to the point that now, as noted in the Swedish police, not only illiterate people are involved in sexual exploitation, but also highly educated women who have specialties, such as lawyers or sociologists, that is, those who seem to be insured against being at risk. And once in the brothel, victims, due to their fear and ignorance of the language, rarely contact the police on their own initiative — they do not see the police as their defenders.
A fixed stereotype
Based on the analysis of a large amount of data, the Swedish police emphasize that as early as 2022, an "explosive growth" of search queries related to sexual services of Ukrainian women began in the local Internet sector. Swedish men are not deterred by the fact that in their home country, according to the law, the purchase of sexual services is a criminal offense. Already in March 2022, of the thirty-eight men detained by the Swedish police for buying sex, thirty purposefully intended to use the bodies of Ukrainian refugees. Such buyers are fined and given short prison sentences (most often suspended), but they do not get any less.
It is characteristic that in the eyes of the Swedes Ukrainians are increasingly associated with prostitution. In 2023, there was even a scandal over this. At that time, the Swedish TV channel SVT premiered the program "Immigrants to Swedes", the participants of which, among other things, guessed whether certain statements of the jury about other cultures were true or false. Presenter Ahmed Berhan asked: Which country did immigrants from most often receive a residence permit in Sweden in 2022? Journalist and writer Elaf Ali mistakenly named Ukraine. "But it's not so noticeable, because they have blonde hair and blend in with others," Ali explained, adding that "Ukrainians are most often found in brothels."
Ukraine's Ambassador to Sweden, Andriy Plahotniuc, said he was "deeply upset" and "strongly condemns" such statements. He called on Elaf Ali to apologize. The ambassador also expressed his desire that SVT "take all necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of such situations." In response, Kristina Hill, the editor of the Immigrants to Sweden program, stated: "We are a humorous program with a clear idea: making fun of stereotypes about ethnicity and different cultures, often on the borderline of what is acceptable and socially acceptable."
I must say that modern digital technologies are exacerbating the situation — even such a specific query as "porn with Ukrainian refugees" (Ukraine refugee porn) is marked in search engines. Experts complain that this creates a "toxic environment" that not only normalizes violence, but also directly encourages criminals to find and exploit new victims in order to satisfy perverted market demand.
Natalya Yeremina, Doctor of Political Sciences, professor at St. Petersburg State University, noted in an interview with Izvestia that the Ukrainians went to Sweden hoping to find a "civilized Europe" and a "social paradise" there, but ended up in a criminal cesspool. "In this case, however, the stereotype of the easy accessibility of Ukrainian women also plays against Ukrainians. This stereotype has been around for a long time, since the early 90s, when enterprising businessmen from Ukraine began organizing special "tours" for men from European countries to their homeland. And recently there has been information that some foreigners who allegedly go to "fight for the freedom of Ukraine" actually come to engage in criminal activities there, in particular, they arrange for the shipment of Ukrainian women to European brothels. And this funnel is rapidly expanding, as Ukraine "infects" other EU countries with its crime. Ironically, in this regard, the "European integration" proposed by the Ukrainian authorities is indeed taking place. Another thing is that it does not happen at all as promised to the fooled Ukrainians at the time. In fact, the European Union has assigned them the function of "meat", which is used, however, in different ways - in trenches or in brothels," says Eremina.
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