The EURO 2012 Football Championship did not result in an increased
level of human trafficking for sexual and other forms of
exploitation, according to preliminary findings of a research
exploring the link between trafficking and the sporting event
released by the IOM Mission in Ukraine.

Before the start of EURO 2012 national and international media
outlets, Ukrainian researchers and civil society activists, as well
as international experts, had warned about the possibility of large
numbers of women being trafficked to or inside the country to meet
presumably high demand of football fans for sexual services. This
risk had also been included in the security strategy for EURO 2012
and law enforcement agencies had prepared contingency plans to deal
with such scenarios. According to IOM, these concerns did not come
true.

“Close monitoring of the situation and an analysis of law
enforcement, IOM and NGO case data as well hotline responses shows
no evidence that human trafficking surged before or during the EURO
2012,” says Ruth Krcmar, Coordinator of IOM Ukraine’s
Counter Trafficking Programme.

“In general we saw that there is still a big confusion
between human trafficking and prostitution. The interchangeable use
of those terms by the media and some experts has led to false
expectations and created an anxious atmosphere, in which the real
dangers of human trafficking that Ukrainians face today, such as
labour exploitation, were not exposed,” says Krcmar.

IOM’s research suggests that there was no increase in the
number of victims of sexual or labour exploitation or in child
begging, which could be linked to the EURO.

Whereas law enforcement officials stated that they have stopped
several attempts of internal trafficking in the months before the
football tournament, no human trafficking victims were identified
during or closely after the event in either of the four football
venues – Kyiv, Khakiv, Lviv and Donestk – by the police
or IOM’s partner NGOs who specialize on victim
assistance.

 

IOM’s own and other organizations’ anti-trafficking
hotlines, which worked longer hours and employed English-speaking
operators during the EURO 2012, did also not register an increase
in calls and no “SOS” calls from victims or their
relatives were received.

According to IOM’s preliminary analysis there are several
reasons why the feared scenarios did not come true. Mainly,
expectations for an increase in demand for sexual services by
football fans were exaggerated. The awaited surge in human
trafficking was not based on previous experiences and a thorough
examination of factors usually facilitating trafficking. Secondly,
increased attention, high preparedness and several pre-emptive
actions by law enforcement are likely to have had a deterring
effect on potential traffickers. Thirdly, preventive efforts by
civil society and media attention did help raise awareness among
possible clients and potential victims.

The results are in line with earlier findings. IOM carried out
similar monitoring during the football World Cups in Germany in
2006 and in South Africa in 2010. Their outcomes also showed no
increase of sexual exploitation during the tournaments.

“The fear of increased human trafficking for sexual
exploitation comes up every time there is a large sporting event on
the horizon, although our experience only reinforces earlier
findings in other countries. We hope that studies like ours will
eventually put an end to the myth, which results in scarce
counter-trafficking resources being spent on one-off campaigns
rather than long-term solutions and victim assistance,”
concludes Krcmar.

 

IOM Ukraine’s Counter Trafficking Programme works to prevent
human trafficking, raise national capacities to fight the
phenomenon and protect its victims. Since 2000 more than 8.700
persons received comprehensive assistance under IOM’s
reintegration programme for victims of trafficking.

For further information please contact 

Varvara Zhluktenko

IOM Ukraine

Tel + 380 44 568 50 15, +380 67 447 97 92

Email: "mailto:vzhluktenko@iom.int">vzhluktenko@iom.int