A military personnel gives a plush toy to a child as a Ukrainian train transporting hundreds of people fleeing from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Refugees trying to flee the conflict in Ukraine say they have been targeted by people smugglers offering transport across the border for extortionate prices, amid fears of a surge in human trafficking on the country’s border.

Students stranded in the northeast of the country have said they are being offered safe passage to Poland by smugglers in trucks in exchange for $500 (£375), which they are unable to pay.

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In other cases, refugees said they have witnessed apparent volunteers colluding with Ukraine immigration officials to prioritise the entry of those who are willing to pay a fee to flee the country at border points. 

NGOs said they were urgently working to implement “critically important anti-trafficking measures”, as concern mounts that hundreds of Ukrainians are at risk of exploitation from traffickers. 

More than a million Ukrainians have already crossed the border, and the EU has said that 7 million people are likely to be displaced as a result of the conflict.

Many others have crossed the border and are now in surrounding countries such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, Moldova, and Slovakia, while some remain trapped within the Ukraine’s borders struggling to leave due to a lack of available transport to reach the border as violence escalates.

One 23-year-old student who is currently stranded in Sumy, a city in northeast Ukraine, told The Independent he had been targeted by smugglers offering safe passage to Poland in exchange for $500.

The Independent