Sex Trafficking and Bad Data
8 June 06 in Media
The U.S. Government is pressuring Germany to halt the flow of sex workers arriving for the World Cup. The administration is attempting to conflate legal prostitution with the international sex slave trade in much the same manner that it conflates legal pornography with the exploitation of minors here in the States.
A U.S. congressman and other anti-trafficking advocates estimate that thousands of foreign women, many from Eastern Europe, will be forced into sex work during the four-week tournament that begins June 9.
At a briefing, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced “the sordid trade in human beings” and said the fight against trafficking is “a great moral calling of our time.”
The first problem with the State Department’s argument is that Germany has what is probably the world’s most heavily-regulated flesh trade.
Prostitution is legal in Germany, with about 400,000 registered sex workers who pay taxes and receive social benefits. However, the government says forced prostitution is not tolerated and it denies Smith’s claim that it is helping build brothels.
[T]he 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report gave Germany its highest overall rating for compliance with efforts to stop trafficking, and noted German efforts to combat exploitation during the World Cup.
“Nonetheless, due to the sheer size of the event, the potential for increased human trafficking during the games remains a concern,” the report said.
The second problem is that the State Department’s estimate of the size of the international sex slave trade amounts to a wild-assed guess.
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More: World Cup, German, Prostitution, Sex Trafficking, Racial Bias
