2014 World Cup: Does it Attract Human Trafficking

            The Fifa World Cup is the most highly attended sporting event in the world (3.18 million in South Africa) which makes the host country responsible for many aspects of the tourism involved.  One of the problems that arose when Qatar was being considered to host the World Cup was that they would have to build many stadiums to hold all of the games, but what should be most important is the safety of everyone involved.  A recurring theme has emerged since the Athens Olympics concerning

the influx of tourists attracting human traffickers, therefore an important question today is how will the 2014 World Cup in Brazil have an effect on the country's human trafficking situation.  Although it is debatable whether large sporting events affect the amount of human trafficking in an area, if the 2014 Fifa World Cup does affect human trafficking in Brazil it will be in exploited sex workers.

Although Brazil has one of the worst statistics for human trafficking, its major human trafficking industry will not be directly affected by the world cup.  According to Kevin Bales in his book Disposable People, Brazil's part in the slave trade is much darker than that of the United States, and that the abolishment of slavery in 1888 may have not affected the vast remote regions of Brazil where there was little enforcement; consequentially this has created an environment where slavery, or human trafficking can easily flourish.  Bales demonstrates that rapid economic growth in the 1960's and 1970's lead to a recession in the 1980's.  50,000 of 156,000,000 Brazilians own almost everything while 4,000,000 people own 3 percent of the land.  Kevin Bales has demonstrated that when poverty is extreme people are willing to take more extreme risks to make money in order to sufficiently live.  Bales research shows that Brazil's largest human trafficking business is charcoal manufacturing in places where deforestation is occurring.  However, the charcoal business will not be majorly affected by the influx of tourists.

            Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking defined as: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.  It is important to note that sex trafficking is a different than prostitution.  Prostitution or sex work is legal in Brazil as long as no third party benefits from it, or as long as the sex worker is 18 or older.  Because the sale of sex is legal in Brazil, the country is seen as a sex destination.  As a result, there is a large demand for sex workers.   The United Nations estimates that approximately 500,000 children are exploited in domestic prostitution in Brazil.  The law stating that children younger than 18 cannot be sex workers determines those 500,000 children to be victims of human trafficking.  Therefore, if the influx of people in Brazil creates an increased demand for sex workers in which the current supply cannot meet, then the Brazilian sex industry can increase its supply in two ways.  The first is by having consenting adults become sex workers without the threat of violence or coercion.  The second is by committing atrocities in forcing adults or children (even if they do consent to it) into the sex industry. 

            Forced labor is a major problem in Brazil, however, he only form of human trafficking that can be directly affected by the World Cup and the tourism it attracts is sex trafficking.  The questions then raised are: 1) does the tourism associated with sporting events create a larger demand in the sex industry 2) if the demand is greater because of sporting events does the Brazilian sex industry already have enough supply 3) if the current supply of sex workers in Brazil cannot meet the larger demand created by the World Cup will it lead to sex trafficking or an increase in legal sex workers?   
impacted by the World Cup is small.