Will 2010 Olympics and World Cup Boost Forced Prostitution?
Published July 14, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
Next year promises to be a big one for sports fans, with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada and the World Cup in South Africa. But will those same events make it a big year for pimps and traffickers as well? Do major sporting events boost forced prostitution?
There are competing answers, with both sides using statistics from former world-wide sporting events to support their position. The Future Group recently released a report stating that there was a significant risk of increased trafficking into prostitution in Vancouver during the upcoming Olympics. They cite the comparison of the 2004 Athens Olympics, during which the number of trafficking victims identified in Greece doubled. On the other hand, a different report from Vancouver's Sex Worker Safety Action group says that there will be no significant increase in women forced into prostitution during the Olympics. They cite the 2006 World Cup in Germany, which had no significant increase in the number of trafficking victims identified, despite the high estimates from advocacy groups. It seems very little data is available from the 2008 Beijing games, due to the Chinese government's data censorship.
The logical basis behind the argument that major sporting events pose a threat to increase trafficking of women and children into commercial sex is that these events draw massive numbers of men into one place. Sometimes these men are single, traveling without their families, or in a group of friends; sometimes they are drinking. It stands to reason that some of these men might demand commercial sex as entertainment during their trip, and traffickers will supply the women to meet that increased demand.
It's logical, yes, but does it happen? Athens saw a spike in human trafficking, but Germany did not. Was the difference the prevention campaigns which were conducted in Germany? Was the Olympics perceived as more profitable by the traffickers than the World Cup? Were men at the World Cup in Germany less interested in buying sex than the men in Greece? We may not know for sure, at least not until we have better information.
Both Vancouver and South Africa, as well as a number of international organizations, are preparing for the possible increase in human trafficking in 2010. I hope that other groups are also preparing to collect better data at these events as well, so we can continue to better understand what sorts of events motivate traffickers to force women into prostitution and how we can prevent them from doing so in the future. It would be a true celebration if 2010 were known only for excellence in athletics, and not in exploitation.
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Comments (4)
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Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.
Legalization and regulation may be a better way.
Posted by Charles Gillard on 07/17/2009 @ 09:11AM PT
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Legalization and regulation of trafficking? Prostitution is already legal indoors in Canada, though pimping is not. And it is fairly easy to find indoor prostitutes through ads in the back of the entertainment weeklies. The problem is, as always, distinguishing between consenting and coerced prostitutes.
I don't think anyone has a clue whether trafficking will increase or not. No one really seems to know how much there is now. But campaigning against trafficking is a chance to get people who pay for sex to think twice about what they're paying for.
Posted by Anemone Cerridwen on 07/17/2009 @ 10:49AM PT
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"The Chinese government's data censorship." Please. You throw around such references toward other nations without using them in the USA. Do you really belive that you know the un-manipulated data for kidnapping, human trafficking, and prostitution in the USA? A glance at virtually every television show on the public airwaves in the USA shows men with guns and women prostituting themselves, voluntarily or otherwise. In fact, 90% of the time, the TV programs show Russians or other Eastern Europeans--not white American men--importing them, kidnapping them, beating them, drugging them, etc. Where are the valid, accurate statistics for prostitution in America? When I worked in a hospital, rapes were a nightly occurrence, but they more often than not were supressed, dropped, buried, forgotten, unreported. Let's try not to be hypocrites, if that is possible in the USA. Stop focusing on other countries until domestic rape, kidnapping, forced prostitution, human trafficking, brainwashing or mind-programming, etc. etc. etc. are sorted out and resolved.
The US government is no stranger to data manipulation!
Posted by Mark Straka on 07/17/2009 @ 12:50PM PT
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How about we direct our anger toward where it should be...at the perpetrators of these crimes, not at those trying to fight it. We need to work together. I don't think she was isolating the Chinese government or any other government...that's not the point.
Amanda, I appreciate your work...keep it up!
Posted by Mercy Lady on 07/28/2009 @ 05:06PM PT
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