Germany Prepares for World Cup _ And Prostitutes

c. 2006 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ As they prepare for next month’s World Cup and the arrival of millions of soccer fans, German authorities are taking every precaution to guard against terrorist threats, hooligans and other potential problems. But Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., and a coalition of religious and human rights organizations charged this […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ As they prepare for next month’s World Cup and the arrival of millions of soccer fans, German authorities are taking every precaution to guard against terrorist threats, hooligans and other potential problems.

But Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., and a coalition of religious and human rights organizations charged this week that German officials are turning a blind eye to the thousands of foreign prostitutes who are expected to flood the 12 cities hosting World Cup games.


“The sad and disturbing news is that the German government currently is facilitating prostitution,” Smith said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “There will be a very significant influx of trafficked women who will be exploited. They will be raped as a direct result of their having been trafficked into Germany for the World Cup event.”

Prostitution was legalized in designated areas in Germany as of 2002. About 400,000 people are registered as full- or part-time employees in the sex trade; bordellos are regulated and the prostitutes pay taxes and are entitled to government benefits.

In anticipation of the World Cup, scheduled for June 9 to July 9, cities where the games will be played plan to provide special licenses for additional sex workers. Some have been planning temporary “sex huts” to accommodate the increased demand from patrons, and in Berlin, sponsors are being sought to distribute some 100,000 condoms near the soccer stadium.

Outside Cologne, officials have constructed temporary shelters complete with condom vendors and snack machines. In Berlin, a “mega-brothel” has opened with 40 bedrooms, saunas, a pool and satellite television so patrons can watch the soccer matches. The facility is expected to be in operation 24 hours a day.

At the Washington news conference Monday (May 1), Barrett Duke of the Southern Baptist Convention said the decision by German authorities to accommodate rather than clamp down on the pimps, johns and prostitutes is “immoral and reprehensible” and represents a “total disregard for the young girls and women whose lives are stolen from them.”

He said organized criminal elements will benefit from the World Cup business while poor young girls _ largely from Eastern Europe _ will be degraded and forced into the sex trade. Germany, he said, will end up being the “community pimp.”

Martina Nibbeling-Wriessnig, a spokeswoman for the German Embassy in Washington, said prostitution was made legal in Germany so women could get proper medical screening and have legal remedies if they are abused. She said there may be foreign women coming into the country for the World Cup, but suggested that estimates of 40,000 new arrivals widely reported in the press are “nonsense.”


She said state and federal authorities in Germany have programs to combat sexual trafficking and forced prostitution, and will be vigilant during the soccer tournament.

(Robert Cohen writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

KRE/JL END COHEN

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