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International Public Outcry Successful in Curbing Germany World Cup Prostitution

By John-Henry Westen

BERLIN, July 7, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A report released Tuesday by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Swedish development agency Sida indicates that the international public outcry against sex-trafficking in Germany around the World Cup has had some success.  The initial report, with a follow-up to be released in September, indicates little increase in trafficking.

"We have so far not seen any marked increase in human trafficking from eastern European countries to Germany during the World Cup," Swedish IOM spokesman Fredric Larsson told AFP.

Sida and IOM, along with human rights agencies around the world and special efforts in the US Congress, launched awareness campaigns warning that the sex industry in Germany was gearing up for a massive increase in business with the influx of tourists stemming from the World Cup.

"The campaign has had a positive effect. It shows we do not need to accept trafficking," Larsson told AFP.

Deutsche Welle (DW) says of the report's findings: "Pressure from the European Union, United States and church groups led to more police raids on sex shops and brothels, which also helped keep legal and illegal prostitution down."

German authorities, which helped fund massive brothels in anticipation of the increase in business - which profits government through taxation - is now pooh-poohing the former warnings, acting as if the public outcry had no effect.  "Before the World Cup there were rumors circulating about a large rush of prostitutes," Cologne city spokesman Jürgen Müllenberg told DW. "But neither legal nor illegal prostitution has significantly risen."

Prostitutes are complaining about the lack of business.  Sabine Strauss who runs an internet site advertising prostitutes told Deutsche Press Agenteur "It's going pretty slowly, unfortunately, even more slowly than usual."

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