How does the World Cup affect human trafficking?
Yesterday in Russia started the World Cup. Like the Olympics, it has long ceased to be an exceptionally sporting event and turned into a pop cultural phenomenon: fans from all over the world come to the country, and the game itself has long been perceived more as entertainment - not without reason even those who are completely indifferent look at the competition for football. However, the political context of this event is not very prosperous. Russia's relations with the West are very tense now, which is why no official representatives of the participating countries appeared in the championship. And the cost of training, which can pay off only after fifty years, the tightening of security measures affecting not only tourists, but also the Russians themselves, the soaring prices for hotels, transport and food and the mass destruction of stray animals have long been a matter of serious criticism.
But there is a global problem: in connection with the World Cup they talk about human trafficking and exploitation. Human rights activists point out that during large-scale sporting events in host countries, the number of victims of human trafficking, sexual and labor slavery increases dramatically - and the scale of sex work grows with the influx of tourists. The Safe House fund is confident that there is a high risk of a repetition of the situation in Russia. The fund’s program coordinator, Veronika Antimonik, said that while other major sporting events were held, such as the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2017 Confederations Cup, there was an increase in appeals to its foundation and partner organizations. There is also the experience of Germany, South Africa and Brazil, who hosted the World Cup in 2006, 2010 and 2014, respectively, where an increase in the cases of sexual exploitation of children and women was recorded during the championship.
Exploitation
It is really difficult to assess the extent of sex trafficking during sporting events: there have been few studies on this topic, and because of the very nature of the phenomena, it is difficult to assess its scope and obtain reliable information - much remains in the shadows. Some even consider the idea that during world sporting events human trafficking is growing, a myth.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny that the World Cup creates new opportunities for human trafficking. One of the most frequent concerns of human rights defenders in connection with the World Cup - 2018 is a simplified visa regime, which was already introduced in Russia last year to the Confederations Cup. To enter the country, you need only a ticket for the match, the passport of the fan and the usual passport - this mode is valid for the whole month of the championship, as well as ten days before and after it.
Veronika Antimonik notes that this year several people have already applied to the Secure Home Foundation, who suffered from being involved in human trafficking because of the World Cup, and also recruited people to take them abroad. “Because of the facilitated visa regime, not only football fans and tourists come to the country, who create demand and promote the involvement of people in a situation of exploitation here, but also criminals who recruit Russians for export and exploitation abroad,” she explains. period there is a significant increase in the number of ads on the Internet with dubious job offers that may be associated with involvement in a situation of exploitation. "
Because of the facilitated visa regime, not only football fans and tourists come to the country, but also criminals who recruit Russians for export and operation.
Yulia Siluyanova, coordinator of the “Alternative” movement, notes that thousands of Nigerian women are brought to Russia every year - but last year during the Confederations Cup, “Alternative” registered a surge in trafficking. There is every reason to believe that similar events are taking place this year: a few days ago, ten children (nine girls and one boy) were released at the airport in Lagos, who were trafficked by people trying to take them to Russia using fan passports. According to the Nigerian authorities, they have long known about upcoming plans to take the victims to Russia, using visa relief.
Nigeria traffic is not limited. American journalist Brittney Cason says that she almost fell victim to human trafficking during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. A few months before the start of the Games, a man approached her, introducing himself as an agent who recruits correspondents for work in Sochi - Brittney already had experience in sports journalism, so it seemed logical to her. She decided to check whether the stranger had told her the truth - from his social networks and website, she realized that he had contacts in the industry, and one of her friends even confirmed her working biography to her. A few months later, the girl filled out the documents for a work visa, signed documents for the production company, which was supposed to broadcast the competitions about which she was going to make reports. She checked all the documents that were sent to her, and they seemed authentic.
Two weeks before departure, the “agent” asked Brittney to give him the contacts of her other female reporters, referring to the fact that he needed more people to join the team. His "assistant" almost immediately sent the new girls the documents that were required to fill out a visa. This is what alarmed Cason: she had been preparing for the trip for several months, and for new girls the “agent” had not even asked for a portfolio. Together with another journalist who was supposed to fly to Sochi, they decided to play it safe and appealed directly to the production company, with which their “agent” allegedly collaborated. The company told them that they had never heard of him, and they turned to the police.
The victim said that she was offered a job as a maid, and when she arrived in the city, her documents were taken away and they were forced to provide sex services.
The Internet, and in particular the social network, is becoming an increasingly popular means of engaging in human trafficking - with its help, business organizers are looking for new victims and customers for them. In mid-May, the Crisis Center for Women launched a petition calling for a halt to the involvement of women in the sex industry via the VKontakte social network — almost thirty thousand people have now signed it. According to the authors of the petition, in the spring they noticed a sharp increase in job ads, which in practice could mean involvement in the sex industry: vacancies in massage parlors, escort services, and other offers of “well-paid work without experience."
The organization notes that large-scale sporting events are preceded by extensive preparation, including in the entertainment industry: new cafes, hotels and services are emerging. In the same way, in their opinion, the sex industry is growing. "At risk are women who are somehow unstable" - those who do not have a permanent job or work experience, or those who travel from small towns to large cities, not quite understanding the characteristics of a big city, graduates of orphanages, students, applicants , - Boris Konakov, specialist in public relations at the Crisis Center for Women, notes, adding that both residents of Russia and citizens of other countries are at risk. - They are offered jobs in the entertainment industry, and upon closer inspection it turns out that they could t offer to provide services of an intimate nature. " The organization notes that in recent times there are announcements of a different kind - for example, when they are looking for assistant managers "with the knowledge of document flow, accounting reports" and for some reason "with a third breast size."
According to Boris Konakov, at the time when the center was analyzing ads, they received a request from Sochi: the victim told that she was offered to work at the hotel as a maid, and when she arrived in the city, her documents were taken away and they were forced to provide sex services. "We are terrified of the end of the championship, because we assume that the growth in seeking help from those who have already suffered from being involved in prostitution will be somewhere from the beginning of August, when they realize that this“ temporary high-paying job ”is not so easy. will end, "he notes.
Preparation for activities takes place in a short time, and often this leads to the fact that workers exploit
In the crisis center, they note that they have launched a petition to draw attention to the problem and reduce the volume of involvement in the sex industry - they hope that the VKontakte resources will help to come up with an effective mechanism for filtering such ads. The organization proposes to create a bot or application that would help automatically filter out suspicious ads (manual blocking takes time), or tighten the conditions for publishing ads so that they cannot be anonymous. VKontakte responded to the appeal: representatives of the social network said that they are working hard to reduce the number of such announcements, and sort out incoming complaints, but are not ready to block messages with certain words, as they may not be related to engaging in the sex sphere ( for example, to be journalistic materials), and sex business organizers may find new ways.
The press service of "VKontakte" told us that the social network moderation team constantly restricts access to the site to users and communities that offer sex services or work in the sex sphere: similar materials are removed within a few minutes after users' complaints, and violators are blocked. Representatives of social networks also offer users to contact support for questionable ads. Boris Konakov notes that in the "Crisis Center for Women" are unhappy with the response of the social network and plan to continue the campaign.
Labor slavery
The problem of trafficking during large-scale world events is not limited to sexual slavery. In addition to it, labor also arises: preparation for events takes place in a short time, and often this leads to the fact that workers are exploited and they are forced to work in inhuman conditions for minimal pay - or even without it. There are much more open testimonies and high-profile cases than in cases of sexual exploitation, examples can be found in many events of recent years. For example, during the preparation for the World Cup, which was held in Brazil in 2014, one of the country's largest construction companies, OAS S.A. accused of operating the workers: according to the country's Ministry of Labor, who oversaw the construction of two stadiums for the championship for several months in 2013, one hundred and twenty-four workers were in slave conditions and worked in long shifts — in addition, the company did not pay them transportation costs for relocation to another country, although the law requires it
How existing anti-exploitation measures are applied can hit the victims themselves.
Human Rights Watch has issued a large-scale report on violations during the construction of facilities for the Olympic Games in Sochi: the Fisht stadium, the Olympic Village and the press center. For the report, the organization interviewed sixty-six workers who worked in Sochi from 2009 to 2012, they came from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Workers were paid an average of 55 to 80 rubles per hour, with some employers withholding wages, forcing them to work twelve hours a day, depriving weekends, taking away passports and work permits and threatening to be deported from the country.
Similar processes are taking place in countries that have only to take big championships. For example, according to the report of the International Confederation of Trade Unions, from 2010 (when it became known that the country would hold the World Cup in 2022) to 2013, 1,200 workers died in Qatar - a large number of deaths occur in August, the hottest month of the year country. Not all workers are engaged in sports facilities, but they are all working to change the appearance of the city - for example, they are engaged in the renovation of airports and railways, building hotels and more. The organization estimates that by 2022 the number of deaths could reach 4,000. Workers' rights were violated in another way: by the end of 2016, the country had a kafala labor protection system that should help control the movement of migrant workers, but in practice allowed employers to ban workers from leaving the country , since they had to give the last permission to leave.
What to do
Veronika Antimonik notes that there is no separate law against human trafficking and special state programs in Russia - and this creates difficulties in dealing with the problem: "There are two articles in the criminal code that allow to initiate criminal cases on cases of human trafficking, but, unfortunately, not so many victims are willing to cooperate with law enforcement and give evidence, for various reasons. " According to her, organizations from the service sector (hotels, restaurants, taxi services) are not yet ready to cooperate with NGOs in solving the problem, and the possibilities of organizations are limited.
How existing anti-exploitation measures are applied can hit the victims themselves. In the United States, on the eve of the Super Bowl, the number of arrests is growing - also because police are starting to more actively deal with sex work. Sex workers face police brutality - and then they themselves can be brought to justice. Irina Maslova, head of the Russian sex workers' Silver Rose movement, says that sex workers face new problems on the eve of the World Cup. “All normal people leave St. Petersburg during major events - everything is blocked, everything interferes. And we, sex workers, are expelled from the city against our desire,” she says. “From May twenty-fifth, the“ strengthening ”of the work of all power begins In other words, stripping plans are planned. They will be held as acts of intimidation to show the cities in which the championship is taking place, “in decent shape.” Most sex workers understand that the forces are unequal, the pressure is beyond, and decide to stop slave “I’m no longer a citizen and resident of my own city, I don’t like it." “Cleansing,” according to Maslova, accompanies physical and psychological violence by police officers; sex workers for many hours kept in the police station, they extort bribes.
Human rights activists say that trying to fight human trafficking and exploitation only “pointwise” is unlikely to help: “It is always important to speak about the problem of human trafficking,” says Veronika Antimonik. “Raising awareness can greatly help in preventing human trafficking and in identifying victims.” . Nobody argues with the fact that certain events and factors make victims more vulnerable - but they become victims of exploitation every day, regardless of whether the World Cup is taking place in the country or not, that is, they need to be paid attention to more often than once every four years. “We do not hang our nose and continue to work,” says Boris Konakov. “The championship is a championship, but the problem will not end with it.”
Photo: ASP Inc - stock.adobe.com, Alekss - stock.adobe.com
