Russia is illegally recruiting foreign nationals into its military by using deception, blackmail, document confiscation and the threat of deportation to coerce migrants into fighting in Ukraine — a practice that amounts to human trafficking under international law, Amnesty International said in a report Thursday.
The finding follows interviews with prisoners of war from more than a dozen countries held in Ukrainian captivity, almost all of whom described abuses during recruitment that brought them into Russia's armed forces.
Practices documented by Amnesty International — including contracts signed without informed consent, confiscated passports, restricted freedom of movement, inadequate training and threats against those who tried to leave — meet the threshold for human trafficking under the UN Palermo Protocol, the organisation said.
The Palermo Protocol, or UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transport or receipt of people through force, deception or coercion for the purpose of exploitation.
It is the primary international legal instrument on trafficking and has been ratified by 178 states, including Russia.
