The majority of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) fleeing the violence resulting from the war in Ukraine are women and children. Displacement uproots their lives, disrupts their social networks and increases their vulnerability to human trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation and abuse. Chissey Mueller (Senior Protection Coordinator) and Iryna Mydlovets (National Protection Officer) from IOM Ukraine will provide an update and overview of counter-human trafficking and protection issues in Ukraine. The briefing will include an overview of mobility trends, protection threats (forms of harm), protection needs and responses, and IOM’s programming in Ukraine.
A light lunch with be served.
Sponsored by: Humanitarian Action Initiative, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs at the George Washington University
Speakers:
Chissey Mueller, IOM Ukraine - Senior Protection Coordinator
Ms. Chissey Mueller joined the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 2005. She has served as a senior manager, protection coordinator, government and donor liaison, and public outreach focal point, leading operations that supported the safety and dignity of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and internally displaced persons. Ms. Mueller expanded IOM’s protection programming for the large-scale humanitarian response in Yemen, Bangladesh, and Ukraine. She also held IOM posts in Headquarters, the Caribbean, and Washington, DC, with a technical focus on countering human trafficking.
Prior to IOM, she worked in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors in the United States and Japan. Ms. Mueller received an MAIA in International Politics and Security from American University (Washington, DC), and an MAIA in International Cooperation and Development from Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto, Japan).
Iryna Mydlovets, IOM Ukraine - National Protection Officer
Since joining IOM Ukraine in 2014, Ms. Mydlovets has successfully worked to transition IOM’s traditional counter-trafficking programme into a broader protection portfolio, adapting it for development and large-scale humanitarian contexts that serve people who have been harmed. She is responsible for overseeing implementation of the multi-million-dollar counter-trafficking project funded by USAID and supporting the effective functioning of a rapidly growing IOM protection team. Ms. Mydlovets’ efficient coordination of the IOM trafficking prevention efforts for almost 9 years has led to recognizing a number of IOM Ukraine’s initiatives as the best practices, resulting in their further regionalization by other IOM Missions. Prior to IOM, she worked at La Strada-Ukraine NGO for over 5 years, coordinating three national hotline operations and managing different donor projects. Ms. Mydlovets received a master’s degree in Translation and Pedagogical Science from the National Aviation University (Kyiv, Ukraine).
