German sex industry 'gearing up' for World Cup

The German sex industry is gearing up for the 2006 World Cup, with up to 60,000 women from eastern Europe to be trafficked to the country and forced into prostitution unless firm action is taken by the authorities, according to a report today.

A 3,000 square metre sex complex with 650 ‘service boxes’ has been built near Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, a new prostitution centre is being set up in Cologne, while in Dortmund prostitutes will be offering their services in drive-in facilities, said the report by the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg.

The assembly, comprising several hundred national parliamentarians and senators from the Council of Europe’s 46 member states, joined other organisations in calling on the German authorities to take a firm stance against traffickers in human beings and set up and publicise multilingual telephone helplines to allow women to request emergency assistance during the June 9-July 9 tournament.