On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, 2 December, IOM Ukraine opened a public art installation in Mariinskiy Park in Kyiv. The installation titled, Invisible in Plain Sight, seeks to raise awareness about trafficking in human beings and tell the real stories of its victims who live amongst us, but often remain unseen.

IOM and the Embassy of the Netherlands organized a four-day training on document security for practitioners from the regional departments of the State Migration Service and the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

As of mid of January, IOM has assisted over 26,200 vulnerable internally displaced persons in 16 regions of Ukraine. With funds from Norway, Switzerland, the U.S., UN, Germany and the EU, these people were provided with medicine, hygiene items, warm clothes, shoes and blankets, heaters, as well as legal counselling and psychological support.

With winter swiftly approaching, IOM will extend its support to 4,000 more displaced people among the most vulnerable in Ukraine. By the end of September, there were already 300,000 displaced people from Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service. IOM is targeting the most vulnerable among them in 13 regions of Ukraine hosting over 65 per cent of the displaced population.

How are music, race and African migration linked in the Ukrainian context? – ‘Through hip-hop culture,’ answers Adriana Helbig, Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh, in her book presented at the IOM Ukraine’s office