Call for action over World Cup 'sex-trafficking'

Thousands of women will be trafficked into Germany to work as prostitutes during this summer’s football World Cup, it was claimed today.

Governments and soccer’s governing body, FIFA, were urged to take action as the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) launched a major campaign insisting “Buying Sex is Not a Sport”.

NWCI Director Joanna McMinn said people were oblivious to the size and extent of the global sex industry, which she said would go into overdrive in Germany during the World Cup.

“The NWCI views prostitution as sexual exploitation, in which women, legally or not, are physically and psychologically harmed,” she said.

“The public are understandably unaware of the reality of global trafficking and do not realise that women, some as young as 15 years, are actually sold into the global sex industry.

“The NWCI is launching this campaign to raise awareness of this issue and the violence and human rights abuses associated with this practice, in light of the up-coming FIFA World Cup.”

The NWCI claimed the owners of brothels in the 12 German World Cup cities are preparing to make maximum profits during the World Cup with the massive influx of male supporters, including building so-called “performance boxes”.

“Performance boxes are wooden ‘sex huts’ resembling toilets that have been built in fenced-in areas the size of a football field, with condoms, showers and parking for the buyers and a special focus on protecting their ’anonymity’,” Ms McMinn said.

“For this, the private sex entrepreneurs have had to receive authorisations from the local governments in the 12 German cities.”

The NWCI asserted that treating women’s bodies as sexual commodities violates women’s human rights and international standards of sport that promote equality, mutual respect and non-discrimination.

An online petition was launched calling on Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and Government to put the issue of trafficking women for prostitution on the agenda of the EU Council of Ministers (Justice and Home Affairs) meeting in Luxembourg on April 27 and 28, 2006.

The petition also calls on all sporting bodies, including FIFA and the Football Association of Ireland to disassociate themselves publicly from the sexual exploitation of women around sporting events and to affirm the dignity and human rights of all women.

“If you find the trafficking in women for prostitution for major sporting events unacceptable, we appeal to you to join us in signing this statement in protest at the trafficking in women for the FIFA World Cup 2006,” Ms McMinn said.

“You can sign online at www.nwci.ie or call us on 0 (0353) 18787248 and we will send you on the information that you require.”