ANTI-TRAFFICKING ALLIANCE
The Anti-Trafficking Alliance (ATA) is a UK-based charity working to tackle sex trafficking.
Sex trafficking is a modern day form of slavery that, whilst almost invisible, is undoubtedly happening today in the UK.
The majority of victims are women and girls. Trafficked women do not work the streets - they are hidden in brothels, massage parlours and saunas.
Victims suffer horrendous long-term abuse at the hands of both their traffickers and from those who visit them for paid sexual services.
Will the London Olympics Increase Sex Trafficking into the UK?
In 2012, the eyes of the world will be on London as it hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Sport can be a positive force in the lives of Londoners, but major sporting events have also been linked with increases in trafficking, prostitution and sexual assault in the past.
ATA is concerned that traffickers will seek to profit from the 2012 Games and would like the UK government to do everything it can to prevent this and reduce the risk to vulnerable women.
Past events have shown a surge in sex trafficking
Evidence from previous sporting events suggests that a surge in the number of visitors to a country can lead to an increased demand for prostitution – and an increase in trafficking to meet this demand:
- The Metropolitan Police has already noted a small increase in the number of trafficked women working in the five Olympic host boroughs of London. (Guardian article, 19/07/2009)
- There were reports of sex attacks in the athletes' village at Sydney in 2000 (Guardian article, 19/07/2009)
- A report by a leading counter-human trafficking organisation in Canada outlines a link between international sporting events and an upsurge in the demand for prostitution from visitors, site workers and athletes which in turn fuels human trafficking (The Future Group, 2007)
- At the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, where prevention efforts were poor, the number of known human trafficking victims almost doubled. (The Future Group, 2007)
- The European Parliament recognised in their resolution passed on March 15 2006 that major sporting events result in a ‘temporary and spectacular increase in the demand for sexual services’. Organisations working to protect children have highlighted how the largest sporting event in the U.S, the Superbowl, coincides with a spike in trafficking of underage girls – at previous Superbowls, pimps have hired cab drivers to turn their vehicles into mobile brothels according to one activist. (The Independent 06/02/2011)
Is there really a surge in sex trafficking?
Not everyone agrees with these findings – a researcher at George Washington University, for example, states that claims of increases are overblown or inaccurate. (Weitzer, R. 2007)
Part of the problem is that the nature of sex trafficking makes it very difficult to assess any increase and to collect accurate data.
A report into sex trafficking and the German World Cup (International Organisation for Migration, 2006), for example, found that media reports that 40,000 women might be trafficked into Germany was unfounded and unrealistic.. However, the report also found that prevention campaigns and increased law enforcement efforts may have reduced the risk of trafficking and the characteristics of the fan-base – mostly families with children – was also likely to reduce the demand for sexual services.
Whether there is an increase in trafficking or not in 2012, the Olympic Games are likely to impact on the women already in prostitution in the five Olympic host boroughs. Coordinated and victim-centred policing across the boroughs is essential to ensure that women are not displaced from one borough to another.
What can the UK Government do?
The Anti-Trafficking Alliance has been working in partnership with other anti-trafficking charities, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Metropolitan Police Service and the Greater London Authority to develop preventation plans and activities prior to the 2012 Games.
They want to see:
A major public awareness-raising campaign about the causes and consequences of sex trafficking – and its links to prostitution - with the result that visitors to London are aware of the UK legislation on paying for sex with coerced individuals and the sexual exploitation of children under 18
Training for health workers and other frontline service-providers to ensure:
- Specialist trafficking teams are set up at UK ports and airports
- An advice line and training for police, immigration staff, social workers, health workers and other frontline staff are in place so they can support and respond to the needs of victims of trafficking
- The removal of advertising for sex services in newspapers
- Effective enforcement action against those who pay for sex with someone subject to force and against traffickers
Film, Behind the Smile
Most clubs in the UK have now received a copy of ATA's film on trafficking in the UK, Behind the Smile.
Report on sex trafficking and the 2012 Olympic Games