EU onderzoekt vrouwenhandel voor prostitutie bij grote sportevenementen (en)
Auteur: | By Teresa Küchler
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU justice ministers have agreed to look into taking action against the trafficking of women for forced prostitution during major sports events.
Following a request by Sweden, ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday (21 February) decided to have their national police examine ways of combating human trafficking at major sports events such as the forthcoming football world championship in Germany in July.
"It is not enough that we ministers sit here and say trafficking is horrible, we need to take concrete measures to stop it," Swedish justice minister Tomas Bodstrom said after the meeting.
Mr Bodstrom told EUobserver that justice commissioner Franco Frattini has also written a lettter to German authorities urging action.
Members of the so-called "EU police chief task force" - the heads of law-enforcement agencies across the EU - will meet in The Hague on 2 March to try to find a common position on trafficking and sports events.
The task force aims at exchanging information and creating closer co-operation between the various national police forces and other EU law-enforcement agencies.
The same task force has also worked on preventing hooliganism at international football matches.
"It is important however that we do not turn this into a question about the German championship only, but that we find a way to confront this at any major event in any EU country," Mr Bodstrom said.
He added that a similar discussion had been heard ahead of the Olympic games in Greece in 2004.
German interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble suggested looking into the possibility of introducing a temporary visa during the championship, but did not specify which country's nationals would require visas.
The Austrian delegation, currently holding the presidency of the EU and responsible for meeting agendas, promised to put sex trade at sports events on the agenda of the next justice minsiters' meeting in April.
Earlier this year, MEPs adopted a report by Austrian socialist MEP Christa Prets presenting strategies to prevent trafficking of women and children.
The report contained an explicit request that German authorities take "appropriate measures" when hosting the major football event this summer.
According to the report, busloads of prostitutes from neighbouring eastern European countries are expected to arrive in Berlin and other cities in Germany during the world cup.
Prostitution is legal in Germany in certain city zones, but with thousands of football fans attending the world cup the supply of local prostitutes is likely to fall short and German cities face a 30 percent increase in sex trade during the event, various NGOs have said.
In Berlin, within walking distance from the main football arena, a "super brothel" with 70 rooms for 600 customers daily has been built, and in Dortmund and Cologne so-called "performance boxes" - mobile units equipped with snacks and condom vending machines, toilets, alarms and emergency exits - are being installed.
In Hamburg an info-centre with 24-hour interpretation for foreign prostitutes is being prepared.
NGOs argue that such preparations stimulate illegal trafficking of women and children from the new EU member states and further east.
Estimates of the total number of women and girls that may be brought to Germany for sexual purposes for the event vary from 40,000 to 100,000.