A growing outrage (finally) about human trafficking at the World Cup – some articles on the subject.
From today’s WaPo, a column by two people associated with an anti-human trafficking group:
From our experience as service providers for victims of trafficking, we know that large sporting events, conventions and other such gatherings are closely tied to a spike in demand for commercial sex and, in turn, for sex trafficking. Behind the trophies and cheers is the hidden suffering of women and children who bear the brunt of violence and abuse resulting from the rise in demand. Because of the link between demand and sex trafficking, we are troubled to see that the State Department gave Germany a Tier 1 compliance ranking in its annual Trafficking in Persons report released earlier this week, despite the German government’s failure to address this problem.
Exacerbating all of the factors described above are the legalization of pimping and of the buying of commercial sex. The traffickers support legalization because they know that "regulation" has, in practice, meant a thin layer of regulated commercial sex businesses that have opted into the system, resting on top of a far larger group of illegal operations. The underground dealers have correctly calculated that greater profits can be generated through not paying taxes, ignoring basic safety standards for women and engaging in trafficking of children. Without a commensurately large, and politically unrealistic, apparatus to meaningfully monitor and police the thousands of underground operations, the increase in demand under a legalized system dramatically drives the expansion of this sector of sex trafficking. Unlike the success seen in countries such as Sweden, with its policies that decriminalize prostituted women and children but criminalize the buyers and controllers, failure has been the hallmark of the social experiment of full legalization.
The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute has information and a petition
Some sisters are trying to get the word out against the scourge:
"Over 800 000 people are sold into sex slavery each year," said Jolanta Olech, president of Poland’s Conference of Female Superiors. "In beautiful, democratic Europe, which cries whenever a little dog gets hit, this scourge is being concealed by silence."
The leaflets would be circulated in Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian and other languages with telephone numbers for women seeking help during the World Cup, taking place in 12 German cities between 9 June and 9 July 2006, Olech noted.
"A woman at risk who has a few seconds to memorise the number can get in touch with us, while those going for the work may think twice," she told ENI. "But the leaflets should also affect prostitutes’ clients, so they’ll know some of these women have been forced into sex by criminals."
The Roman Catholic Union of European Conferences of Major Superiors had asked national organizations to campaign against prostitution. "Our resources are limited, but we’re doing what we can," Olech said.
From the Guardian, a couple of weeks ago:
There is evidence that Germany’s pimps are casting their eyes on poverty-stricken countries much further away than Albania in their search for women for the Cup. CATW says it has received calls from the mothers of Brazilian teenagers lured by traffickers. "They are being offered all-expenses-paid trips to go to Germany and ‘support their country’," says Janice Raymond, co-director of CATW.
For the teams involved, prostitution has inevitably become an issue. The French coach, Raymond Domenech, is appalled by the prospect of thousands of prostitutes being imported for the tournament. "It is humiliating enough for me that football is linked with alcohol and violence," he says, "but this is worse. Human beings are being talked about like cattle, and football is linked with that."
Lars-Ake Lagrell, president of the Swedish Football Association, is equally adamant. He promises that no Swedish player will use brothels during the World Cup. There have even been calls for the Swedish team to withdraw from the Cup by Claes Borgström, the Swedish government’s equality ombudsman, who says he believes the tournament will encourage more men to visit prostitutes. Sweden has a strong record on prostitution: the country criminalised the buying of sexual services seven years ago after a long-running campaign by feminists, supported by many of its female MPs (who comprise almost 50% of its parliament). Since then, trafficking into the country has decreased.
The English Football Association, however, has no intention of even getting into the row over the World Cup sex industry. According to its spokesman, Andrin Cooper, "It is not the concern of the FA if fans go to brothels." The FA’s main worry, he says, is about fans winding up the Germans with war references and other insults.
Prostitution is a violation of the dignity of the human person, reducing (the person) to an object and instrument of sexual pleasure," said Marchetto, number two at the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants.
"Women become merchandise to purchase, whose cost is less than a ticket to a soccer match," he said. Marchetto joined U.S. and European lawmakers who have urged German authorities to speak out against the increased trafficking of women likely to accompany the Cup finals.
Germany’s brothel owners and pimps are expected to expand their operations and set up temporary "sex huts" and human rights advocates fear that thousands of women and children could be lured from poor countries and forced into prostitution to meet the huge sex trade demand.
"(It’s bad enough) that prostitution is allowed … but it is even worse that more than 40,000 women will enter the trade during the World Cup and many of them are forced to carry out this activity against their will, so they are objects of trafficking," Marchetto said.
Oh, and the photo above? It’s of an advertisement on the side of a brothel in Cologne. The ad contains the flags of the participating nations – except for that those of Iran and Saudi Arabia have been blacked out. That might offend some people.
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