The Invisible Children : Vulnerability to Sexual Trafficking among Ukrainian Roma Girls Displaced to Poland Since 2022

Sammanfattning

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the following displacement waves renewed urgent concerns regarding the sexual trafficking of women and children across the region. Yet, despite repeated warnings and growing documentation of trafficking risks, displaced Ukrainian Roma girls remain largely invisible in both academic scholarship and policy responses. This thesis addresses this gap by examining how war-induced displacement and pre-existing structural violence shape the vulnerability of displaced Ukrainian Roma girls in Poland to sexual trafficking since 2022. Drawing on a combined theoretical framework of structural violence and intersectionality, the thesis argues that vulnerability cannot be understood as a mere consequence of displacement. Rather, the war has intensified and reconfigured entrenched forms of antigypsyism, socio-economic marginalisation, gender inequality, and institutional exclusion. Furthermore, humanitarian and anti-trafficking responses often fail to adequately protect Roma girls, and in some cases, reproduce or exacerbate their vulnerabilities through discriminatory practices and insufficient protection mechanisms. Using thematic document analysis and a qualitative instrumental case study design, this research aims to highlight broader patterns and insights into how conflict-driven displacement intersects with structural violence and institutional exclusion, thereby shaping and reshaping vulnerability to trafficking in contexts where marginalisation and displacement overlap.