Louise Nousratpour
Wednesday February 9, 2011
The Morning Star
The Olympic Games could become a "magnet" for criminal gangs in London to force women and girls into the sex trade, anti-trafficking campaigners warned today.
A coalition of politicians, activists and TUC representatives called on David Cameron to sign the EU directive on human trafficking before next year's Games.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper accused ministers of allowing anti-European sentiments among the Tories get in the way of Britain adopting the "sensible" measures.
She told the Stopping Traffick '11 conference that studies had revealed that international sporting events "can be used by criminals, under the cover of tourism, to exploit particularly women and children."
Tough measures at the 2006 World Cup in Germany stopped the increased demand for prostitution, Ms Cooper said, but weaker measures during the Olympics in Athens almost doubled the number of trafficking victims in 2004.
Last week, US anti-trafficking campaigners warned that "hundreds or even thousands" of women and children had been trafficked into Texas before last Sunday's Super Bowl.
TUC leader Brendan Barber said the government's refusal to adopt the EU directive was a disgrace and abuse would continue as long as the government continued to drag its heels.
Romana Cacchioli of the Anti-Slavery International argued that to combat trafficking Britain must recognise that it can not go it alone.
"It is in the interests of the UK to adopt tougher legislation designed to give Britain the tools it needs to fight the trafficking of men, women and children into forced labour and sexual exploitation," he said.
A Home Office spokesman said: "There is no evidence that there is any increase in human trafficking linked to the Olympics but if this changes we will take appropriate measures to deal with this."
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