WHILE Durban is excited about hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2022, human rights activists are contemplating the impact of a mega sporting event on the growing human trafficking phenomena of sex trafficking and bonded labour.
A massive budget of R3.4-billion was tabled for the project, including R124-million for sports venues with overlays and equipment, R164-million for the Commonwealth village, R633-million for the games workforce, R391-million for advertising and promotions, R103-million for administration and R40-million management fees.
‘Human trafficking, brothels and prostitution notoriously go hand in hand with such mammoth international events, such as the Olympics, World Cup and Super Bowl,’ said Pastor Caroline Pitout of Freedom Generation SA and member of the KZN Human Trafficking and Prostitution Task Team (HTPP).
‘We will have to double awareness efforts and working knowledge of the newly promulgated TIP-Act.
‘We are in close proximity of Durban and we will be affected by such an event on many levels.
‘Jennifer Gustafson in the California Western International Law Journal described the chain-reaction we can also prepare for, saying building arenas and infrastructure causes a spike in the demand for cheap labour, which in turn leads to labour trafficking.
‘Workers increase the demand for commercial sex, which leads to sex trafficking, while visitors and workers around the event make it easier for traffickers to blend in.’
Meanwhile, pro-sex work groups and abolitionists are gearing up for renewed confrontations, with the former arguing that legalising brothels would combat trafficking by saturating the market with volunteer sex-workers and regulated conditions, while the latter says it is paving the way for traffickers.
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