The Cuban government has identified a suspected human trafficking network aimed at recruiting its citizens to fight in the war triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The human trafficking network operates from within Russia.
As reported AFP, Tuesday (5/9/2023), this was disclosed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba in a statement released Monday (4/9) local time. It said Cubans were trafficked and recruited to fight for the Russian military in the war in Ukraine.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry stated that the government was seeking to dismantle ‘human trafficking networks operating from Russia to incorporate Cubans living there, and even some from Cuba, into military forces involved in military operations in Ukraine’.
The Cuban government, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has initiated criminal proceedings against those who carry out human trafficking.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, in a statement via social media X or Twitter, said the government was “acting with the full force of the law” against the practice of human trafficking.
“Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It also stated that Cuba would take action against anyone ‘who participates in any form of human trafficking for the purpose of recruitment or mercenaries for Cuban citizens to use weapons against any country’.
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