Amongst the excitement and anticipation of the upcoming World Cup in Brazil there have already been some spectacular fiascos: ‘Delayed stadium deadlines’, ‘deaths during construction’, ‘failing public services’, ‘poor public spending’ and ‘deep seeded corruption’, all amidst nationwide protests, violence, and under cover government agents. But while the usual calamities fill up the headlines there is a darker vice that seems to go largely unreported.
Unbeknown to most spectators of large sporting events, the risk of child trafficking and sexual exploitation is heightened during the period leading up to, and during, the tournaments. Especially in countries like Brazil, which, according to official statistics, already has more than 250,000 child victims of commercial sexual exploitation, and where the second most reported crime against children is sexual violence, with the majority of victims aged between 10 and 14.
During international sporting events there is a short-term increase in the demand for prostitution, which increases the migration of sex workers to the host cities. This in turn prompts pimps and gangs to recruit additional ‘workers’, some of whom will be children, to meet the hike in demand. Danny Smith, founder of the Jubilee Campaign, a child protection charity, remarks: “I think that there is a general awareness amongst child rights groups that large sporting events increases the risk of the exploitation and trafficking of children.”
Hazel Thompson, a photo journalist who reported on this issue during the World Cup in South Africa, adds, while speaking of her experiences in the country: “There is an underbelly to any such event that attracts large numbers of visitors to a city, a darker game that provides opportunities for abusers, exploiters and traffickers to meet the increased demand for cheap labour and sexual services”.
Previous Events
When looking specifically at past sporting events, there is a large variation, even a discrepancy, between what is feared and what actually takes place.
Before the 2012 Olympics in London, there was a concern that the levels of exploitation in the city would soar before and during the games. Anthony Steen, the chairman of the Human Trafficking Foundation and special envoy to the British home secretary combatting modern day slavery, explains: “There were lots of suggestions before the London Olympics that there would be an increase in street children, begging, exploitation, men exploited for labour, and that there would be a spike in trafficking.”
Georgina Perry, service manager for Open Doors, a London-based outreach service for sex workers, goes further to suggest that “charities, media representatives, and law enforcement units, determinedly talked up the ‘inevitable’ spike in forced prostitution and sex trafficking that was going to happen as the Olympic vehicle lumbered into the East end.
“They would speak at length on how ‘without a clear anti-prostitution strategy, special units, targeted media campaigns and trained experts on standby to rescue and rehabilitate’ London 2012 would be shamed by the legion of sex slaves brought to the capital to service the tide of rampant sports fans hell-bent on buying sexual services during the summer of 2012. This was all news to me.”
British police working at the 2012 Olympic Games (photo: Wikipedia)
Fortunately, there was no evidence of this happening before or during the Olympics in London. Possibly because there was an increased effort by the police, and substantial spending by the government to prevent these crimes well in advance of the games. Steen recalls: “The metropolitan police started increased coordinations 18 months before the Olympics, between themselves and local police to prepare for this, and the government invested all the resources necessary. I think this helped keep the trafficking down. People realised that the government was serious. The key was to plan for these things well in advance.”
But, the picture in Brazil is different to that in London pre-Olympics, and the Brazilian government may not have always invested the necessary funds into tackling child poverty or child sexual exploitation, as current levels of child prostitution suggest.
Maybe a better tournament to draw comparisons with is the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Bharti Patel, chief executive officer for ECPAT, an NGO dedicated to protecting children from sexual exploitation, comments that “you can draw parallels between South Africa and Brazil in regards to child poverty. The opportunities are there for exploiters, and they will use these opportunities to make money, as they have a larger audience. So maybe children will travel to the venues, or be taken to the host cities from other parts of the country.”
During the South African tournament, the media and some of the organisations that were working there, reported a rise in the level of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Smith, who works closely with some of these organisations, believes that “most NGOs would confirm that there was evidence that there was an increase in child sex exploitation and trafficking during the period around the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
“Several media reports detected a rise in domestic trafficking and the setting-up of brothels in preparation for the World Cup. Time magazine even quoted a trafficker declaring that the World Cup was good for business and that he was going to make a lot of money.”
One of the problems is obtaining accurate data to properly assess the effect that the tournament had on child exploitation. Patel notes: “There is a problem with the empirical data to correctly categorise the numbers. We say that child trafficking and sexual exploitation is a hidden issue. This is because the correct measures are not in place so that victims can come forward, and so we fear that this could have been the case in South Africa, and could be the case in Brazil. South Africa say that the numbers don’t reflect the ‘hike’ that people expected. But without the correct safeguarding in place, how can victims come forward?”
The link between the South African World Cup and exploitation, which could also be true for the World Cup in Brazil, is the socio-economic situation of many local communities: the difference of living standards and affluence between the tourists and the local communities. Tourists can represent an opportunity to generate income for some vulnerable children and their parents which may increase the ‘supply’ of sex with children in a country such as Brazil where the level of commercial sexual exploitation of children is already alarming.
The Risk in Brazil
An estimated 600,000 visitors will be making their way to Brazil for the World Cup, which the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command has warned is likely to expand the child sex market. The fear is that sex workers will relocate from other parts of the country to the cities that are hosting the tournament, and that pimps within these cities will try to recruit as many of them as possible, including children, to meet the increased demand for prostitution. “The arrival of thousands of additional tourists in a festive environment where families and children are already living in a situation of great vulnerability could present a real danger to these children,” says Patel. In addition to this, children could be trafficked to these cities by gangs who promise them work in the cities during the tournament.
Brazilian authorities have begun to act in order to combat this issue, as well as supporting NGO initiatives designed to protect vulnerable children during the tournament. Smith explains: “Brazil has become aware of this issue and they have started to put in place several measures to protect children. Legislation already exists so anyone caught could face a jail sentence. There is starting to be a coordinated measure by the Brazilian Federal Police, the Ministry of Human Rights, and the Ministry of Tourism.”
Brazilian authorities launch the ‘Don’t Look Away’ campaign against child trafficking (photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil)
Last year the Brazilian Tourism Ministry launched three campaigns in an attempt to deal with the issue, and to raise awareness of the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. As part of the campaign, posters, masks, car stickers, shirts, hats, and water bottles were distributed, as well as banners placed at strategic locations at Brazilian airports to catch the attention of both Brazilian and foreign tourists. In addition to this, the ‘Dial 100’ line was launched, which is a free national telephone answering service which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It will enable anyone to telephone the hot line to report abuse. Program coordinator of Sustainable Tourism and Childhood, Adeline Neto, comments: “Our children and adolescents need care during this period. We need to be vigilant, if necessary, to report via Dial 100. The idea is that the campaign will continue in the immediate and long term, so that whenever the topic of violence against children and adolescents is highlighted, it is strongly restrained.”
Whilst these campaigns seek to raise awareness, the question remains; are the authorities acting on what people see and what is being reported? As Smith notes, “the Brazilian government is giving the simple message that if anyone ‘sees something they should say something’.” This is not a bad tactic in itself, as long as there is something that happens after the phone call, as long as there are the sufficient police resources to act upon the reports, and as long as the safeguarding measures are put in place to protect and rescue the children once the abuse is discovered.
The problem here could simply be the investment, or lack of it, which is being put in place to tackle the problem. As of September 2013, official figures from Brazil forecasted that the World Cup was going to cost R$25.6bn (US$10.8bn), of which R$3.9bn will come from private investors, with the rest of the funds coming from federal and state budgets. Included within this, the Brazilian Human Rights Secretariat has set aside R$8m for host cities to set up projects to fight child prostitution. This figure may sound large, but in comparison to the budget for the World Cup, and considering the extent of the problem already in Brazil, it may not be enough to combat the issue. “The problem is that it doesn’t appear that the Brazilian government are putting much money and resources into protecting children in comparison to the money that they are spending on putting on a good show.
“An additional criticism is that Brazil doesn’t have the safeguarding measures in place to protect and rescue the children who are being exploited or trafficked. And it doesn’t look like the funds are being made available to tackle the issue,” concludes Patel.
In addition to the measures put in place directly by the Brazilian government, there are also a number of NGO initiatives which are receiving state support, and which are hoped to have a significant impact on reducing the risks.
One such initiative is the ‘Don’t Look Away’ campaign, designed to make tourists “aware of child prostitution, the consequences for the victim and the risks of temptation in a particularly festive and exotic environment.”
Coordinated by ECPAT, the initiative has received support from a large network of child protection organisations, as well as the Brazilian government. “The campaign has been sponsored by SESI (Brazilian Industrial Social Services) and the European Union, but it is also supported by the Brazilian government. We are working with the Brazilian government and the Brazilian police to try and get as much support as possible. One thing that has come of it is the increase in the number of helicopters that the police will be able to use to see from above what is going on,” explains Patel.
Image courtesy of Happy Child UK
Another initiative that has been launched is called ‘It’s a Penalty’, by Happy Child International, a charity mainly based in Brazil, along with the Jubilee Campaign and The A21 Campaign. Smith, founder of the Jubilee Campaign explains: “We have launched the ‘It’s a Penalty’ campaign to make people aware of the risks of being caught abusing children - they can be jailed in Brazil or when they return to their home country.
“The Brazilian government is supporting our initiative, along with British Airways and others, as they will screen our campaign video on all flights to Brazil for a month before the World Cup starts.
“However I fear that our campaign message will be forgotten or ignored or obscured and that children will be abused. We know that trafficking gangs operate and that there is money to be made from the vulnerable members of society. But it’s up to all of us to protect and help the weak and oppressed.”
With initiatives such as these the Brazilian government has shown a willingness to accept and address the problem of child sexual exploitation. But these campaigns will only go so far. To properly combat the problem, the government will need to show potential offenders that they are serious, and that they are willing to pump sufficient resources into prosecuting offenders, and protecting the victims.
Hidden Dangers of the Campaigns
There is also the concern that disproportionate, unnecessary, or harmful measures employed by the authorities to stop children being sexually exploited or trafficked, could have negative consequences for the existing sex workers within Brazil.
This was certainly a criticism of the policing employed during the 2012 Olympics in London, as Georgina Perry recalls, “Where once the relationship between sex workers and clients was good, it is now broken. Where once sex workers may have felt it possible to report crimes against them to the police, there is now a dangerous and distrustful environment in London with crimes going unreported for fear of unwanted repercussions.”
A breakdown in relations between the authorities and existing sex workers could be disastrous during a period when sex workers are likely to be at their busiest, as it would likely restrict them from accessing health and social support, as well as further criminalising them, and exposing them to the additional dangers of clandestine transactions.
Patel, however, makes the simple point that “it’s child abuse at the end of the day, and the police need to be given the responsibility and the resources to police it properly. Of course nobody wants there to be any negative consequences from an increase in policing, but there can be no compromising with the protection of children.”
So while it is important that the police are given sufficient resources and authority to tackle the problem of child exploitation, it is also important that they handle it with care.
It is undeniable that the World Cup is going to have ramifications for Brazil as a nation, and for the people within it. Ernst and Young have forecasted that the championships could inject R$113bn into the economy. Financially, the World Cup is likely to benefit the country, and there is hope that this benefit will be shared between all of the citizens within Brazil, and not just those already at the top.
Brazil has an opportunity to show the world what a positive and progressive country it has become, but will fail in disheartening fashion should their most vulnerable be subjected to further exploitation while the world’s eyes are upon them.
