Influx of Prostitutes

Concerns Over Projected Influx of Prostitutes For World Cup

Germany is braced for an influx of not only three million football fans to next year's World Cup but also thousands of illegal sex workers from eastern Europe.
Fears have been voiced by women's groups, church leaders and trade unionists that up to 40,000 women from eastern Europe could be smuggled into Germany to work as prostitutes during the tournament that takes place in 12 cities in June and July.

"It goes without saying that the World Cup is a great opportunity to make money," said Katharina Cetin, an official at the Hydra prostitute advice center in Berlin. "We expect some great revenues. It'll be good business."

But there are fears that many of the women who end up working in the sex trade at the 2006 World Cup will have been coerced into prostitution or duped by criminal gangs.

Solwodi, an organization that comes to the aid of women in difficulty, said that many of the illegal prostitutes would come into the country recruited under false pretences, attracted by offers of jobs as baby-sitters, bar workers or waitresses.




"We don't know exactly how many women could be forced into prostituting themselves," said Brunhilde Raiser, head of the national council of women in Germany that has launched a campaign dubbed "red card to forced prostitution."

"But what is sure is that prostitution will increase enormously," Raiser said.