SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS
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27–330PDF
2006
GERMANY'S WORLD CUP BROTHELS:
40,000 WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT RISK OF EXPLOITATION THROUGH TRAFFICKING
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
MAY 4, 2006
Serial No. 109–178
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Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey,
Vice Chairman
DAN BURTON, Indiana
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
PETER T. KING, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
RON PAUL, Texas
DARRELL ISSA, California
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
JERRY WELLER, Illinois
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MIKE PENCE, Indiana
THADDEUS G. McCOTTER, Michigan
KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida
JOE WILSON, South Carolina
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina
CONNIE MACK, Florida
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
MICHAEL McCAUL, Texas
TED POE, Texas
TOM LANTOS, California
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American Samoa
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
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SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
ADAM SMITH, Washington
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
DENNIS A. CARDOZA, California
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel
ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California,
Vice Chairman
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
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BARBARA LEE, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
MARY M. NOONAN, Subcommittee Staff Director
GREG SIMPKINS, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member
NOELLE LUSANE, Democratic Professional Staff Member
SHERI A. RICKERT, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member and Counsel
LINDSEY M. PLUMLEY, Staff Associate
C O N T E N T S
WITNESSES
Mr. Michael Horowitz, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
Ms. Ashley Garrett, Program Manager for Trafficking in Persons in North America and the Caribbean, International Organization for Migration
Ms. Jennifer Roemhildt, Executive Director, Lost Coin, Athens, Greece
Ms. Katherine Chon, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Polaris Project
Ms. Maureen Greenwood-Basken, Advocacy Director for Europe and Eurasia, Amnesty International
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Juliette Engel, M.D., Director, MiraMed Institute, Moscow, Russia
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations: Prepared statement
Mr. Michael Horowitz: Prepared statement
Ms. Ashley Garrett: Prepared statement
Ms. Jennifer Roemhildt: Prepared statement
Ms. Katherine Chon: Prepared statement
Ms. Maureen Greenwood-Basken: Prepared statement
Juliette Engel, M.D.: Prepared statement
APPENDIX
Material Submitted for the Hearing Record
GERMANY'S WORLD CUP BROTHELS: 40,000 WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT RISK OF EXPLOITATION THROUGH TRAFFICKING
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THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2006
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights
and International Operations,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:05 p.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. SMITH. The Subcommittee will come to order. And let me begin by first apologizing for being late, and there will be a brief break in this hearing. There is a motion to recommit that should be voted on in about 5 or 10 minutes, and then we will be done, so we have clear sailing from then on.
Good afternoon, everyone. In 1 month, as we know, athletes and fans will be gathering for one of the premier worldwide sporting events of our day, the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Today the Subcommittee will hear testimony on reports that the World Cup will sadly be an impetus for exploitation of women. For most soccer fans like myself, this quadrennial spectacle is a showcase of world-class athleticism and teamwork, but looming in its shadow is the very real potential that the World Cup matches will be a catalyst and magnet for sex trafficking into Germany.
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The World Cup, as we know, opens on June 9th, and over the course of 1 month at 12 venues throughout Germany, national soccer teams from around the world will be playing. Many of the fans will join in the festivities.
For the last year, the German Government has been preparing for this sports bonanza, coordinating security efforts with all neighboring countries, and attending to a myriad of details associated with such major international events.
There is no doubt that human traffickers have also been working overtime to exploit this opportunity to improve their illicit revenues through the expected rise in demand, especially in the so-called sex industry.
Today we join our counterparts in the European Union who have expressed their worries and concerns that there will be an explosion of prostitution and trafficking during the time of the World Cup. The European Parliament rightfully recognized, in their resolution passed on March 15th, that major sporting events result in a ''temporary and spectacular increase in the demand for sexual services.'' A number of actions are outlined that should be undertaken by Germany and their European neighbors, as well as by the sports associations involved, to warn potential victims and assist those who are trafficked, to roundly condemn trafficking, as they put it, in human beings and forced prostitution, and will inform and educate the general public and potential clients in an effort to curb the demand.
I point out that during the February meeting in Vienna, as head of the United States delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and as special representative on human trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I vigorously raised concerns about the trafficking prevention efforts for this event.
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I was joined by other European Parliamentarians, who were sobered by the expectation that—especially since the matches were being held in Germany, which legalized pimping and prostitution in 2001—that World Cup fans would be legally free to rape women in brothels or even in mobile units designed specifically for this form of exploitation.
Of the approximately 400,000 prostitutes in Germany, it is estimated that 75 percent of those who are abused through prostitution are foreigners, many from Central and Eastern Europe, raising many questions as to how they got there in the first place.
Europeans and Americans are not the only ones who have trained their eyes on this explosive association. Vivi Akakpo, the West African coordinator for the All Africa Conference of Churches, has said, and I quote:
''It is now public knowledge that organized syndicates have plans to bring in young women, particularly from Eastern European and from other poor countries, to Germany in time for the World Soccer Cup of 2006.''
The EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, meeting last week, adopted a commendable list of best practices which should be undertaken by member states holding major international events. Among the seven initiatives was the commitment to develop and implement measures that discourage the demand for trafficking victims.
All EU member states to some extent are affected by trafficking in women, as we know. Significant numbers of trafficked women coming to Germany are from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania and Romania. Law enforcement reports that large enterprises and international networks run an organized industry, with political support and economic resources in countries of origin, transit and destination. Corrupt officials are often implicated as well.
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Traffickers use a variety of methods to recruit and move their victims, often utilizing legal avenues to illegally traffic women and children. Legitimate travel documents can be obtained for trips to Germany for the women, and such documents as visas and passports are used to cross international borders, after which the trafficking victims disappear or overstay their visas. Traffickers, however, also use fraudulent documents to obtain genuine travel documents or use altered or counterfeit papers, thus making it more difficult for law enforcement to detect a trafficking victim.
Those that work with the victims of human trafficking have reported that trafficking of women and girls for the so-called sex industry usually heightens during international sports events. According to the 2001 annual report of the BKA, the German Federal Criminal Investigation Office, an inquiry of 414 trafficked women revealed that 45 percent were forced into prostitution through violence, torture, rape or intimidation. Research by Melissa Farley at Prostitution Research and Education found that 71 percent of women surveyed were physically assaulted while engaged in prostitution, and 89 percent wanted to escape prostitution.
I am aware that the German Government is supporting public awareness efforts regarding trafficking for forced prostitution in the context of the World Cup. This is a somewhat absurd effort, given that the infrastructure of legalized prostitution allowed in Germany is gearing up to expand its capacity during the World Cup, and there is every reason to believe that the new recruits into prostitution will be trafficked women and girls. I frankly see this as flagrant state complicity in promoting sex trafficking.
As Sister Lea Ackermann, who founded Solidarity with Women in Distress, has declared, we have decided to flash the red card to those prostitution profiteers who are taking advantage of the World Cup crowds. The president of the German Soccer Federation, Theo Zwanziger, came to the conclusion that they needed to change the federation's position on prostitution after he became aware of the horrors that women forced into prostitution face.
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As the federation president has recognized, and I quote him again, ''We did underestimate the whole issue of prostitution, and I regret that. I say this quite openly.''
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for Chancellor Merkel to take a stand and speak out against the exploitation of women and children in the name of sport. I would encourage her government to turn the tables beginning now with the World Cup, and commit to reversing Germany's laws on prostitution as well. We can all join together to fight the human trafficking and make the forced prostitution of women and girls more difficult for the traffickers.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act requires that every year the United States Department of State analyze a report on the problem of trafficking in persons around the world. If Germany is providing either direct or indirect sanction for sex traffickers, then Germany does not deserve to be ranked as a Tier 1 country.
As the world will turn its attention to soccer, as it does, those committed to ending the tragedy of trafficking women and girls for sexual exploitation will be watching how Germany protects the most vulnerable.
I look forward to hearing our witnesses today, and will just add that yesterday I, along with a few other Members of Congress, met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and provided her with information with regard to this issue. And our sincere hope is that, in the Secretary's meetings with the Chancellor, the issue is being raised in a robust and thorough way.
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[The prepared statement of Mr. Smith follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
Ladies and gentlemen, in one month, athletes and fans will be gathering for one of the premiere, world-wide sporting events of our day, the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Today the Subcommittee will hear testimony on reports that the World Cup will sadly be an impetus for the exploitation of women. For most soccer fans like myself, this quadrennial spectacle is the showcase of world class athleticism and teamwork, but looming in its shadow is the very real potential that the World Cup matches will be a catalyst and magnet for sex trafficking into Germany.
The World Cup opens on June 9, and over the course of one month at 12 venues throughout Germany, national soccer teams from around the world will be playing. Millions of fans will join in the festivities. For the last year, the German Government has been preparing for this sports bonanza, coordinating security efforts with all neighboring countries, and attending to the myriad of details associated with such major international events. There is no doubt that human traffickers have also been working overtime to exploit this opportunity to improve their illicit revenues through the expected rise in demand, especially in the so-called sex industry.
Today we join our counterparts in the European Union who have expressed their worries that there will be an explosion of prostitution and trafficking during the time of the World Cup. The European Parliament rightfully recognized in their resolution passed on March 15 that major sporting events result in a ''temporary and spectacular increase in the demand for sexual services.'' A number of actions were outlined that should be undertaken by Germany and their European neighbors, as well as by the sports associations involved, to warn potential victims and assist those who are trafficked, to ''roundly condemn trafficking in human beings and forced prostitution'', and to inform and educate the general public and potential clients in an effort to curb the demand.
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During the February meeting in Vienna, as Head of the U.S. Delegation and as Special Representative on Human Trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I vigorously raised concerns about the trafficking prevention efforts for this event. I was joined by other European parliamentarians who were sobered by the expectation that, especially since the matches are being held in Germany which legalized pimping and prostitution in 2001, the World Cup fans would be legally free to rape women in brothels or even in mobile units designed specifically for this form of exploitation. Of the approximately 400,000 prostitutes in Germany, it is estimated that 75 percent of those who are abused in these houses of prostitution are foreigners, many from Central and Eastern Europe.
Europeans and Americans are not the only ones who have trained their eyes on this explosive situation. Vivi Akakpo, West Africa coordinator for the All Africa Conference of Churches said, ''It is now public knowledge that organized syndicates have plans to bring in young women, particularly from eastern Europe and from other poor countries, to Germany in time for the World Soccer Cup 2006.'' The EU Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting last week adopted a commendable list of best practices which should be undertaken by member states holding major international events. Among the seven initiatives was the commitment to develop and implement measures that discourage the demand for trafficking victims.
All EU member states to some extent are affected by trafficking in women. Significant numbers of trafficked women coming to Germany are from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus, Lithuania and Romania. Law enforcement reports that large enterprises and international networks run an organized ''industry'' with political support and economic resources in countries of origin, transit and destination. Corrupt officials are often implicated.
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Traffickers use a variety of methods to recruit and move their victims, often utilizing legal avenues to illegally traffic women and children. Legitimate travel documents can be obtained for ''trips to Germany'' for the women and such documents as visas and passports are used to cross international borders, after which the trafficking victims disappear or overstay their visas. Traffickers, however, also use fraudulent documents to obtain genuine travel documents or use altered or counterfeit papers, thus making it more difficult for law enforcement to detect a trafficking victim.
Those that work with the victims of human trafficking have reported that trafficking of women and girls for the so-called sex industry usually heightens during international sports events. According to the BKA (the German Federal Criminal Investigation Office) annual report in 2001, an inquiry of 414 trafficked women revealed that 45% were forced into prostitution through violence, torture, rape or intimidation. Research conducted by Melissa Farley at Prostitution Research & Education found that 71% of women surveyed were physically assaulted while engaged in prostitution and 89% wanted to escape prostitution.
I am aware that the German Government is supporting public awareness efforts regarding trafficking for forced prostitution in the context of the World Cup. This is a somewhat absurd effort given that the infrastructure of legalized prostitution allowed in Germany is gearing up to expand its capacity during the World Cup and there is every reason to believe that the ''new recruits'' into prostitution will be trafficked women and girls. I see this as flagrant state complicity in promoting sex trafficking.
As Sister Lea Ackermann, the Catholic nun in Germany who founded SOLWODI—SOLIDARITY with Women in Distress, has declared, ''We have decided to flash the 'red card' to those prostitution profiteers'' who are taking advantage of the World Cup crowds. The president of the German Soccer Federation, Theo Zwanziger, came to the conclusion that they needed to change the Federation's position on prostitution after he became aware of the horrors that women forced into prostitution face. As the federation president has recognized, ''We did underestimate the whole issue [of prostitution] and I regret that, I say it quite openly.''
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Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for Chancellor Merkel to take a stand and speak out against the exploitation of women and children in the name of sport. I would encourage her government to turn the tables beginning now with the World Cup, and commit to reversing Germany's laws on prostitution. We can all join together in the fight to combat human trafficking and make the forced prostitution of women and girls more difficult for the traffickers.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act requires that every year the United States Department of State analyze and report on the problem of trafficking in persons around the world. If Germany is providing direct or indirect sanction for sex trafficking, then Germany does not deserve to be ranked as a tier one country.
As the world will turn its attention to soccer, those committed to ending the tragedy of trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation will be watching how Germany protects the most vulnerable. I look forward to hearing the perspective of the witnesses today. I hope that the German Government is listening, too.
Mr. SMITH. And so I would now take a very, very brief pause because we do have two votes on the Floor. Then we will get back, and I am sure some of my colleagues will follow. But again, I want to thank our panel for their patience and forbearance of this interruption.
The Committee stands in brief recess.
[Recess.]
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Mr. SMITH. Thank you. The Committee will resume its hearing. And again, thank you for your patience.
We will begin today's hearing first with testimony from Michael Horowitz, who is the director of the Hudson Institute's Project for Civil Justice Reform and Project for International Religious Liberty. He has served as general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget from 1981 to 1985, and as an associate professor of law at the University of Mississippi from 1965 to 1967.
Previously Mr. Horowitz served as an advisor to the Czech, Slovak and Bulgaria Academies of Science and was vice president of the Bulgarian-American Friendship Society; counsel and trustee of Save Cambodia, Incorporated, and National Advisory Board for the Institute of Democracy in Vietnam; and has been a real contributor over these many years to human rights legislation, and I want to thank him for that tremendous contribution that he has made.
We will then hear from Ms. Ashley Garrett, who is the project manager for Trafficking in Persons within the International Organization for Migration's Regional Office for North America and the Caribbean. Ms. Garrett has provided training on trafficking in persons to the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition in California, Mexico, Justice Canada and the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, Ms. Garrett serves as the trafficking focal point for the region, representing IOM's global trafficking programs.
We will then hear from Jennifer Roemhildt, who is the founder and the executive director of the Greek NGO Nea Zoi, Association for the Support and Restoration of Individuals Involved in Prostitution. Nea Zoi is commonly known as the Lost Coin. Lost Coin is part of a coalition of local NGOs which conducted outreach and intervention among victims of trafficking and others working in prostitution during the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Ms. Roemhildt has been active in street work in Athens for 8 years.
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We will then hear from Ms. Katherine Chon, who is cofounder and co-executive director of Polaris Project, a Washington-based nonprofit organization combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Ms. Chon has worked with over 60 victims of human trafficking, providing training and technical assistance to service providers and law enforcement across the country and to foreign delegations. She has been recognized for her social entrepreneurship with a Do Something BRICK Award presented by President Bill Clinton and comedian Tina Fey.
We will then hear from Ms. Maureen Greenwood-Basken, who is advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia. She manages advocacy campaigns for Amnesty International USA on Europe and Central Asia and on worldwide issues such as trafficking in persons and the intersection of business and human rights. She previously worked in Moscow from 1993 to 1995 as the U.S. Representative in the Union of Councils' Russian-American Bureau on Human Rights. Ms. Greenwood-Basken is a recipient of the 2002 United Nations Human Rights Award.
We will then hear from Dr. Juliette Engel, who is founder and director of the MiraMed Institute, which works to educate and advocate for the elimination of sexual trafficking of girls and women from Russia and former Soviet republics. She is also founder of the Angel Coalition, Russia's first antitrafficking coalition of NGOs from 25 regions of Russia and 6 former Soviet republics. She also served in 2003 to 2005 as project leader for a Trafficking in Persons Department of State grant for developing a Victim Assistance/Rescue Center in Moscow, and nine regional safe houses. And I want to thank Dr. Engel for making the very long trip from Moscow to here on relatively short notice. We deeply appreciate that commitment and the fine work that you do.
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I would like to now go to Mr. Horowitz.
STATEMENT OF MR. MICHAEL HOROWITZ, SENIOR FELLOW, HUDSON INSTITUTE
Mr. HOROWITZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This is not the first great scandal that Germany has confronted since it has legalized prostitution. In 2000, the so-called Vollmer fast visa scandal took place, which almost brought down the German Government, where fast-track visa issuances led to long lines outside of the German Embassy and all their consulates in Russia and Ukraine, and tens of thousands, perhaps more, of young, vulnerable girls were imported into Germany and abused in ways that particularly Juliette Engel has lived with and experienced.
So this is strike two on Germany. And as far as I think we are concerned in this game, two strikes and you are out. This is a battle we don't intend to lose, as I hope to describe.
Germany is, of course, now under great pressure on this very issue. The world is closing in on Germany in a variety of ways on the issue of what is going on in the World Cup. And I was so grateful, Mr. Chairman, for your statement that made clear that cosmetic solutions of a few more police officers and police patrols or sweeping it a little more efficiently under the rug will not do insofar as this growing coalition of governments, of NGOs, of leaders throughout the world are concerned.
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The key to all legalization in Germany—which, by the way, Mr. Chairman, has become point 0 in terms of destination countries in the world for some of the most abused and trafficked women—both in terms of numbers and in terms of the savagery to which they are subjected. And the reason why legalization equals slavery is because the Pretty Woman myth, the Julia Roberts myth of some young woman who, mistakenly or not, enters into prostitution, is a lie. And even if there are, as I suspect there are, very few, a handful of girls like Julia Roberts, what that creates in a world where prostitution is legal is a cover for the enslavement of millions. And the reason is obvious. Once the issue of whether abuse takes place—and Germany says we are against abuse—it becomes a he says, she says matter, with a 17-year-old girl who has been beaten, abused, her mind half rotted out by having to ''service,'' as they say, 30 men a day, perhaps her family threatened with retribution and even murder by these vicious mafias. Is such a girl going to testify as to what has happened to her? And if she does, she is confronting an organization with lots of money and lots of lawyers and lots of threats of—little death threats if she loses this case; and if she wins it, no real support, and maybe only deportation to her own country.
So once you legalize, you basically legitimatize and empower the mafias. And the one experience that proves the case, in Germany and elsewhere, is every country that has legalized prostitution has seen a quantum increase in illegal prostitution under its own laws and terms.
Here is a famous story of an American senior official going to an official of a European country, one that has legalized prostitution. He said, look, you talk about all the service programs and the police patrols you have, but my evidence is that 80 or 90 percent of the women in prostitution are slaves. And the official, a senior police official, was outraged, and he said, no, no, no, that is not fair, that is a lie; only 40 percent are. Now, that country, which shall be nameless, whose major city is Amsterdam, has been a kind of symbol for this kind of evil. Germany has replaced it.
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The larger context of this whole hearing, of course, is the battle to define the 21st century. I think the 21st century will be defined, one way or the other, by the emancipation or not, the empowerment or not, of women. And this is the struggle, in my judgment, on which that battle will be fought no less than the battle that was fought 150 years ago over slavery, over the enslavement of Africans.
And so the battle against trafficking is the battle against the slavery issue of our time, whether by the pimps in the streets of Washington, DC, or the child brothels in Bombay, or the quickie shacks now being constructed outside of World Cup stadiums to ''service'' the soccer fans who come to the games.
And the people who think that legalization can work, who want ergonomic mattress mandates or more police patrols, are no different from the people in the 18th century who wanted better health conditions on slave ships and occasional Christmas breaks for enslaved fieldhands.
We are going to beat them, Mr. Chairman, just like our counterparts beat them 150 years ago. And let me tell you why; because we are going to have episodes just like this which will be defining episodes. What happens in this World Cup—and I hope there are representatives from the German Embassy here—will be a chapter in the book that gets written 50 years from now—and maybe shorter than that—on how we ended the slavery issue of our time.
One of the things about this issue is it has turned the world against Germany, and indeed most of Germany against the officials who just want to continue a kind of status quo treatment of this cancer. In the United States, you have Jews and Christians, feminists and right-to-lifers, Democrats and Republicans bonded at the hip taking this issue on under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. As you well know, look at the four chief sponsors of that act when it first passed: You, of course, Mr. Chairman; your former colleague Sam Gejdenson, the son of Holocaust survivors; Senator Sam Brownback, one of the most conservative Members of the United States Senate; and the late Senator Paul Wellstone, who told me, by the way, right before his death, that the stories he heard from those trafficked women were the moving—it gave him the most single moving experience he had during his entire term as a United States Senator. He saw the face of evil and was ready to take it on.
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But it is also the United States and countries around the world. What more can you say about this issue and Germany's conduct than that it has joined the United States and France. The coach of the French soccer team, probably the most powerful and popular and important man—at least until the games begin—in France and I won't take the time of the Committee, but in my statement and others, the statement that Raymond Domenech issued where he said it is bad enough that soccer has been so sullied by the hooligans who are involved in drinking and violence, but he says this is worse; it is slaves that will come and be put into houses. Human beings are talked about like cattle, and Coach Domenech is not going to have any part of it, as if true of all of the other groups that you described in your statement.
But it is not only true around the world, it is true in Germany. Church leaders have denounced it, feminist leaders have denounced it, and, most tellingly, police officials throughout Germany have said, we have got to put a stop to these plans of the pimps and the brothels and have called on the Merkel government, along with everybody else, to do so.
So I say, you know, when you are in a battle, when you are out to make history, as I think our coalition is, you can't avoid battles. Sometimes you don't pick the ground of the battles. Sometimes when the battleground is set, you get lucky, for it is a ground that defines the issue in ways that allows history to be made. And such is the battle over the coming World Cup, Mr. Chairman.
It is going to be a venue, a historic battleground, in our war to end the slavery of our time. And if Germany wants to be a poster child for slavery, I say to the German officials, bring it on, we are ready for you. If Germany wants to risk, indeed, lose the goodwill of the world, and I say this as a friend of Germany, who has traveled to Germany, who thinks of the miraculous way in which democracy has so taken hold in so many ways in Germany. But if Germany wants to lose the goodwill of people on left and right in the United States and around the world, through this hearing and through what they are hearing, they can't say they haven't been warned.
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And then there is the Chancellor. This is an ironic situation, Mr. Chairman, because the Chancellor opposed the legalization laws. Her party opposed the legalization laws. She ought to see this not as a challenge, not as a problem which needs to be papered over, but as an opportunity to get in sync with her own people and the rest of the world, and not turn this into her Vietnam.
And I will say, Mr. Chairman, right here, that there was intense debate on the part of our coalition as to whether to picket, to demonstrate against Chancellor Merkel during her visit here, and the judgment was made that this is a woman of decency, that these are not policies she supported, that there is time left for her to take real and serious steps; and she will be given that time, but that time is not going to continue forever.
And I hope no one in Germany and I hope no one in the Embassy is mistaken about the fact that this is a battlefield on a battle that we cannot lose, where we intend to make history in dealing with this issue, and making Germany pay whatever price Germany may have to pay.
There are many steps that Germany can take. Let me just close with two. Number one, the Chancellor has the power, under current laws, (A) to limit visas; and (B) to issue emergency regulations that limit the operations of what are now the legal commercial sex operations to hours no greater than or personnel no larger than, say, a date like April 1st. That would cut back on the plans of Germany's predators.
But secondly, and finally, this is her opportunity to appoint a blue ribbon commission to take a hard look at the laws that were passed over her opposition. All of the premises of those laws—that they would bring in more revenue, that they would limit illegal prostitution—are untrue. So this is her opportunity. We urge her to take it; but if she doesn't, as I say again, bring it on, we are not going to lose this battle. And we are going to be joined from groups that seldom agree all over the world. Thank you.
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Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much for your eloquent and very passionate statement, and very concrete recommendations directed at both Germany and the United States.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Horowitz follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MR. MICHAEL HOROWITZ, SENIOR FELLOW, HUDSON INSTITUTE
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for inviting me to testify today on a matter of increasing world interest, and what I believe to be literally historic significance. The matter before the Committee today deals directly with, and is of real significance to, the 21st century's most defining struggle: the emancipation and empowerment of women.
Precisely as their 19th century counterparts fought against African chattel slavery, so are brave advocates, world political leaders including President Bush and, most of all, survivors, now fighting against the savage enslavement of girls and women at the hands of what is euphemistically called the ''commercial sex industry.'' As did the Simon Legree's of their time, today's traffickers, pimps and brothel owners prey upon weak, abused and powerless people and convert the enslavement of their victims into a massively profitable criminal enterprise. With the cooperation (and the often even-worse silence) of many government officials, today's traffickers seek to protect themselves with the same rationalizations, the same expenditures of great sums of money, the same physical and psychological threats and violence by which 19th Century slaveholders sought to maintain their regimes.
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So much for the bad news.
The good news is that aroused coalitions in the United States and throughout the world have mobilized to end the epidemic scourge of trafficking, doing so with the same abolitionist spirit and resolve that made slave pens in Ghana and South Carolina museums of a shameful chapter of history rather than operational facilities. In the United States, thanks in no small measure to your leadership, Mr. Chairman, Congress enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act which mandates the United States to confront governments both friendly and unfriendly when they are complicit in the perpetuation of trafficking. Thanks to the leadership of President Bush and his Trafficking in Persons Office headed by Ambassador John Miller, and thanks to the work of committed Congressional Democrats like Bobby Scott, Tom Lantos and Carolyn Maloney, great progress is now being made by the United States in the battle against domestic and international trafficking and slavery. And, as you would be the first to say, Mr. Chairman, the battle is being powerfully led from the grassroots by survivors and by religious, feminist and human rights activists in the United States and around the world—leaders whose character is perfectly captured by the closing term used in letters sent to coalition members and public officials by the Salvation Army's Lisa Thompson:
''Abolition!''
Lisa's passion is equally shared by the Southern Baptist Convention's Barrett Duke and by Equality Now's Jessica Neuwirth, and by world leaders like Madrid's Vice Mayor Anna Botella and the Queen of Sweden. It is shared by the remarkable ''heroes'' honored in the annual TIP Reports and by such advocates as the friend and hero whose sits on this panel, the great Juliet Engel of Russia's Miramed Coalition. Finally and as noted, the effort is animated by the brave survivors of trafficking who find the courage not only to get out of bed each morning but to inspire the rest of us to ensure that other young women will not suffer the brutalization and savagery that they experienced.
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Because of all this, we will not stop!
Because of all this we will not be denied!
Because of all this, we are now, and increasingly, winning the battle over the slavery issue of our time!
In waging this battle, we have not only taken on the traffickers, bribed police officers and indifferent public officials who make today's mass slavery of millions of girls and women possible. At least as importantly we now also wage intellectual and policy battles, as we must, against trafficking's apologists and appeasers. Those adversaries, some well-meaning, believe that the fight against traffickers can never be won and can thus only be waged at the margins. They call for the legalization and regulation of the commercial sex industry, precisely as their 19th century counterparts sought to ''reform'' African chattel slavery by seeking improved health conditions on slave ships and by calling for episodic Christmas holiday breaks for field hands.
Such advocates were wrong then and, no less mistakenly and tragically, are wrong today. Neither the promulgation of ergonomic mattress standards nor the creation of mandates that oblige police to distinguish between abusive and ''friendly'' pimps will ever, repeat EVER, protect the millions of psychologically captured, terrified, physically abused victims of the commercial sex ''industry.''
Today's appeasers fail to understand that legalizing prostitution always increases illegal prostitution. They fail to understand that the emotional capture of victims by brutal and experienced traffickers makes it certain that the victims will almost never feel free to testify about the lives they are forced to endure. They fail to understand that ''Pretty Woman'' story is a lie, that the Academy Award electors who awarded this year's Oscar to the profoundly infamous song ''It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp'' provide cover and protection for the real world of slavery. For the record, I have attached the paper I prepared contrasting the words of the Oscar-winning song with the reality of trafficking in the United States. The attached paper defines both the challenges before our coalition and the reasons why we will drive a stake through the hearts of the pimps and massage parlor operators and brothel owners in the United States and why, sooner than many believe, Bombay brothels will become, like African chattel slave pens, relics of a tragic past.
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All of this leads to the immediate subject of today's hearing, the announced plans for the importation by Germany's traffickers of at least 40,000 ''sex workers''—an odious term that masks truth no less than Communist regimes do when they call themselves People's Republics—to ''service'' World Cup attendees. The hearing will also address parallel plans of German traffickers to construct ''quickie shacks'' and 24/7 brothels in the immediate neighborhoods of World Cup soccer venues.
Others will testify more fully on this subject, and my comments are intended to add context to their statements.
First is the sense in which I almost welcome the World Cup plans for the manner in which they so clearly lay bare the evils we and the world must put to an end. The proof of this pudding is the galvanic manner in which the World Cup plans have strengthened bonds between left and right, between Democrats and Republicans, between feminists and evangelicals and between American activists and political leaders and their counterparts around the rest of the world. The World Cup plans are so odious that, wonder of wonders, they have even made allies of France and the United States. Few statements better capture the spirit of our growing world-wide coalition, and its mounting opposition to Germany's odious World Cup plans, than those of Raymond Domenech, coach of the French World Cup soccer team:
It is truly scandalous. People are talking about women, importing them to satisfy the base instincts of people associated with football. It is humiliating enough for me that football is linked with alcohol and violence. But this is worse. It is slaves that will come and be put into houses. Human beings are being talked about like cattle, and football is linked with that.
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Coach Domenech has been joined by equally strong reactions from Scandinavian legislators, European Union officials, and others of like mind throughout Europe. Within Germany, the World Cup plans have linked German police officials and German feminists, German church leaders and German secularists in an equally bonded assault on their country's trafficking ''industry.''
The coming World Cup plans offer a great challenge and opportunity for Chancellor Merkel. If she treats the traffickers' current plans as a mere public relations problem for Germany, and responds to today's mounting protests with cosmetic, whitewashing steps, she will have badly misgauged the mood and determination of our worldwide coalition, and will have lost a singular opportunity to define her chancellorship in ways that will greatly enhance her world leadership stature.
If, on the other hand, she sees events like today's hearings as invitations to capitalize on a leadership opportunity, I believe that Chancellor Merkel will profit from doing so at least as much as the victims she will have helped save by such action.
I urge the Chancellor to consider taking five critical steps—and to do so quickly so that her action will be seen as bold leadership steps rather than an expedient compromise forced on her by others.
The steps are:
1. Work with European Union officials to limit, to the extent legally possible, the entry into Germany of the ''sex workers'' during the World Cup games.
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2. Take steps to ensure, to the extent legally possible, that no unit of state or local government in Germany finances or subsidizes the construction of ''sex industry'' facilities designed for World Cup use.
3. Working with leaders like Juliet Engel, massively increase the availability of ''hot lines'' for complaining trafficking victims and massively increase police patrols, investigations and presence to monitor all existing ''industry'' venues.
4. As a critical matter, issue emergency regulations barring German commercial sex operators from expanding their hours of ''business'' or number of ''employees'' during the World Cup games beyond their April 1, 2006 levels of operation.
5. As a critical matter, appoint a blue ribbon commission of German leaders to study the effects and propriety of Germany's existing anti-trafficking and prostitution laws, charging the commission with reporting back to her with such recommendations to modify or repeal the laws as the commission deems appropriate.
With regard to the last proposal, it should be noted that Chancellor Merkel and her party opposed the very legalization laws that have brought her and her country to today's point of world-wide condemnation. Thus, the Chancellor's failure to take bold action of the sort described above will, ironically, make her the victims of the evils of trafficking perpetrated by her political opponents. This would be a moral and political outcome that—shrewd political leader, decent human being and woman that she is—the Chancellor must not and, I believe, will not permit to happen.
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But whatever she does, our coalition is ready to make the current World Cup plans a crossroads moment—a battle we cannot afford to lose—in our effort to end the current and potential future enslavement of millions of girls and women. As we see it, the lives of millions of those victims, and Germany's entitlement to the goodwill of other countries of the world, both hang in the balance and are in the Chancellor's hands.
Mr. SMITH. And let me make this very clear. This is the first in a series of hearings that we will be holding. Obviously as the World Cup ensues, we will be watching this very closely, as will, I know, people in Germany, as well as those who are part of the antitrafficking coalition. So there will be ongoing scrutiny, and hopefully, as you said, since the Chancellor is a very decent person whose party opposed the prostitution legalization, this is an opportune time to pivot and to go in the direction of humanity, and embracing women rather than abandoning them.
I would like to yield to Mr. Tancredo, if he has any opening comments.
Mr. TANCREDO. No, Mr. Chairman, thank you. I came in a little late, so I would be willing to just listen to the rest of the presentation.
Mr. SMITH. Ms. Garrett.
STATEMENT OF MS. ASHLEY GARRETT, PROGRAM MANAGER FOR TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS IN NORTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION
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Ms. GARRETT. Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to address you today.
I am privileged to speak to you about the International Organization for Migration's concerns and planned actions surrounding the linkages between large-scale sporting events like the 2006 World Cup and trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation.
I would like to offer a brief, abbreviated version of my written testimony at this time.
Mr. SMITH. Without objection, your full statement will be made a part of the record.
Ms. GARRETT. Thank you.
Trafficking in persons represents one of the worst forms of exploitation of human beings facing the world today. For over a decade, IOM has collaborated with governments and civil society organizations to develop proactive, victim-centered strategies to prevent traffickings in persons, to identify and assist those individuals who have been exploited and abused, and target the demands for exploitation by strengthening the tools and resources available to law enforcement and the judiciary in the prosecution and conviction of traffickers.
Human traffickers prey on the most vulnerable, exploiting their hopes and dreams of a better life. Traffickers constantly monitor the demand patterns, looking for opportunities to maximize their profits obtained for the illicit sale of human beings. The 2006 World Cup presents such an opportunity.
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This hearing is an excellent moment to discuss ways in which together we can take innovative and proactive action, addressing both the supply and demand sides as they relate to the sexual exploitation of women and children.
Germany is a country of transit and destination for international trafficking, as well as one for internal trafficking. In 2004, the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation registered 972 victims of trafficking, the majority of whom were victims of sexual exploitation. The estimated number of unreported cases is much higher.
It is critical that the German Government, civil societies and the international community look seriously at the potential links between this major sporting event and the potential increase in the demand for sexual exploitation of women and children.
I would like to highlight a few ways in which IOM has begun doing so in collaboration with the German Government, the international and national civil society organizations and the international media.
First, IOM has been approached by the MTV Europe Foundation to partner, along with the Swedish International Development Agency, in producing a television public service announcement addressing the demand sides of sex trafficking. This is part of a larger ongoing trafficking awareness and prevention campaign called EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking). This PSA will be broadcast across all of Europe, including key countries of origin and Germany, before and during the World Cup. We are in the final stages of negotiation an agreement for this campaign that will be directed at both potential clients of prostitutes, as well as those most vulnerable to becoming trafficked, thus targeting both the supply and demand components in which human traffickers exploit others for their own gain.
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This campaign will raise awareness about the connection between major sporting events and trafficking for sexual exploitation, encouraging potential clients to educate themselves on what trafficking in persons is and how do take personal responsibility in reducing this form of exploitation, while providing a warning to potential victims.
Secondly, as a part of a broad coalition of German Government and civil society organizations, the IOM mission in Germany has been in consultation with the German Government about the potential links between the sexual exploitation of women and children and the World Cup.
Finally, in key countries of origin like Ukraine, Moldova and other CIS countries, IOM missions are closely monitoring any shifts in recruitment and movement patterns and strategies that traffickers may employ to respond to this potential increase in demand. Through our preventative programs, IOM works to reduce the potential supply of vulnerable individuals. IOM is also working closely with law enforcement and the judiciary to target the demand side by enhancing their investigative capacity and ensuring that cooperation and the sharing of criminal intelligence on organized criminal networks linked to trafficking in persons is facilitated across borders.
There are several other important initiatives that I would also like to take the opportunity to highlight at this time. IOM would like to recognize the international campaign Final Whistle—Stop Forced Prostitution, which has been launched by the German National Council of Women and has received support from the German Football Federation and the German Police Union, amongst others.
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The European Parliament has called for all members states, particularly Germany, to take appropriate measures in the course of the World Cup football tournament to prevent trafficking of women.
As part of their ongoing response to address human trafficking, the German Government continues to provide training to law enforcement officials on trafficking in persons, identification of victims, and response to strategies for law enforcement officials when they do identify a person who has been trafficked.
IOM views the upcoming World Cup as an opportunity to maximize and increase knowledge on trafficking for sexual exploitation amongst potential clients of prostitutes and those most at risk to being exploited. With an estimated attendance of over 3 million fans, and the additional millions more who will be watching the games from television, the opportunity to vastly improve the global understanding, knowledge and response of what trafficking in persons is, who potential victims are, and what individuals and communities can do to help is enormous. As an international community, we must capitalize on this important opportunity to continue to advocate for those individuals who have been victimized.
On a final note, I would like to raise your attention to another upcoming large-scale sporting event that IOM, with resources from the U.S. State Department's Bureau for Population Refugees and Migration, has already begun preparing for, the 2007 World Cricket Cup.
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, I thank you for the leadership of this Subcommittee in helping to call attention to this critical issue, and for allowing me the opportunity to address you.
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Mr. SMITH. Ms. Garrett, thank you so very much for your testimony.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Garrett follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MS. ASHLEY GARRETT, PROGRAM MANAGER FOR TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS IN NORTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION
Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I am privileged to speak to you about the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) concerns and planned actions surrounding the linkages between large scale sporting events like the 2006 World Cup and trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation. I would like to speak to you briefly about the situation as IOM view's it, share our planned activities to address those linkages and highlight a few other important actions taken by others.
Trafficking in persons represents one of the worst forms of exploitation of human beings facing the world today. For over a decade, IOM has collaborated with governments and civil society organizations to develop proactive, victim-centered strategies to prevent trafficking in persons, to identify and assist those individuals who have been exploited and abused, and target the demand for exploitation by strengthening the tools and resources available to law enforcement and the judiciary in the prosecution and conviction of traffickers.
Trafficking in persons is one of the most significant forms of transnational organized crime. Human traffickers prey on the most vulnerable, exploiting their hopes and dreams of a better life.
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Traffickers constantly monitor the demand patterns, looking for opportunities to maximize their profits obtained through the illicit sale of human beings. The 2006 World Cup presents such an opportunity. As such, this hearing is an excellent opportunity to discuss ways in which together we can take innovative and proactive action, addressing both the supply and demand sides as they relate to the sexual exploitation of women and children.
Germany is a country of transit and destination for international trafficking, as well as one for internal trafficking. In 2004, the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation registered 972 victims of trafficking, the majority of whom were victims of sexual exploitation. The estimated number of unreported cases is much higher. 75.5% of the identified victims were citizens from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Rumania, Poland, and Lithuania.
Since 1999, IOM, at the request of the German government, has facilitated the voluntary return of 772 victims of trafficking to their home country and provided them with reintegration assistance in their home communities to mitigate their vulnerability to being re-trafficked. In 2005, IOM Germany began a transnational project ''Reintegration of Victims of Trafficking—Strengthening of National Supporters'' where we serve as a bridge between German authorities, NGOs and counterparts in countries of origin, transit and destination.
It is critical that the German government, civil society and the international community look seriously at the potential links between this major sporting event and the potential increase in the demand for sexual exploitation of women and children. I would like to highlight a few ways in which IOM has begun doing so, in collaboration with the German government, international and national civil society organizations and the international media.
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First, IOM has been approached by the MTV Europe Foundation to partner along with the Swedish International Development Agency in producing a television public service announcement addressing the demand side of sex trafficking. This is part of a larger, on-going multimedia Pan-European trafficking awareness and prevention campaign called EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) which seeks to increase awareness and prevention of the trafficking of women and girls in Europe.
This PSA will be broadcast across all of Europe, including key countries of origin and Germany before and during the World Cup. We are in the final stages of negotiation on the agreement for this campaign that will be directed at both potential clients of prostitutes as well as those most vulnerable to becoming trafficked, thus targeting both the supply and demand components in which human traffickers exploit others for their own gain.
This campaign will raise awareness about the connection between major sporting events and trafficking for sexual exploitation, encouraging potential clients to educate themselves on what trafficking in persons is and how to take personal responsibility in reducing this form of exploitation, while providing a warning to potential victims.
Secondly, as part of a broad coalition of German government and civil society organizations, the IOM Mission in Germany has been in consultation with the German government about the potential links between the sexual exploitation of women and children and the World Cup. To date, there are 28 campaigns currently underway in Germany, five at the federal level with an additional 23 at the regional level. Implemented in close cooperation with political and civil society, the common theme of these campaigns is the identification and protection of potential victims of trafficking.
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Finally, in key countries of origin like Ukraine, Moldova and other CIS Countries, IOM Missions are closely monitoring any shifts in recruitment and movement patterns and strategies that traffickers may employ to respond to this potential increase in demand. Our on-going prevention programs in these countries continue to offer information on trafficking in persons, safe mechanisms to migrate, and improved alternatives for those most at risk of sex trafficking.
Through such preventative programs, IOM works to reduce the potential supply of vulnerable individuals. IOM is also working closely with law enforcement and the judiciary to target the demand side by enhancing their investigative capacity and ensuring that cooperation and the sharing of criminal intelligence on organized criminal networks linked to trafficking in persons is facilitated across borders.
There are several other important initiatives that I would also like to take the opportunity to highlight at this time.
IOM would like to recognize the international campaign ''Final Whistle—Stop Forced Prostitution,'' which has been launched by the German National Council of Women and has received support from the German Football Federation and the German Police Union, amongst others. This campaign and its broad coalition of support demonstrate a commitment to respond proactively in addressing the links between trafficking for sexual exploitation and the 2006 World Cup.
The European Parliament has called for all member states, particularly Germany, to take ''appropriate measures in the course of the World Cup football tournament to prevent trafficking of women.'' This important step recognizes that trafficking in persons in not an isolated problem for any single country, but calls for a regional approach for governments to work together to address the potential impact of large scale sporting events on the sexual exploitation of women and children.
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As part of their on-going response to address human trafficking, the German government continues to provide training to law enforcement officials on trafficking in persons, identification of victims and response strategies for law enforcement officials when they do identify a person who has been trafficked. These law enforcement officials are well situated to identify potential victims and link them to the extensive network of service providers already established within Germany.
IOM views the upcoming World Cup as an opportunity to maximize and increase knowledge on trafficking for sexual exploitation amongst potential clients of prostitutes and those most at risk to being exploited. With an estimated attendance of over three million fans and the additional millions more who will be watching the games on television, the opportunity to vastly improve the global understanding and knowledge of what is trafficking in persons, who potential victims are and what individuals and communities can do to help is enormous.
As an international community, we must capitalize on this important opportunity to continue to advocate for those individuals who have been victimized.
On a final note, I would like to raise your attention to another upcoming large scale sporting event that IOM, with resources from the U.S. State Department's Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration has already begun preparing for, the 2007 World Cricket Cup, hosted by seven Caribbean countries with participation from an additional 16 countries. The lessons that we continue to learn from our combined efforts during the 2006 World Cup will be instrumental in shaping our strategies to proactively protect those most vulnerable and target the demand side as we plan for this next event.
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Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, I thank you for the leadership of this Subcommittee in helping to call attention to this critical issue and for the opportunity to allow me to speak to you today.
Mr. SMITH. We are joined by Dr. Boozman. Do you have any——
Mr. BOOZMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't have an opening statement or anything, but I really do appreciate you and the Ranking Member holding this very, very important hearing. Thank you.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much.
Ms. Roemhildt.
STATEMENT OF MS. JENNIFER ROEMHILDT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LOST COIN, ATHENS, GREECE
Ms. ROEMHILDT. Good afternoon. My name is Jennifer Roemhildt, and I am the founder and executive director of the NGO Nea Zoi, Lost Coin Association for the Support and Restoration of Individuals Involved in Prostitution in Athens, Greece.
On behalf of the women I serve, many of whom who might just as easily have found themselves in Germany this summer, I thank you for the time and effort that you are expending to address and to prevent the deep trauma which trafficking inflicts on women. Your role in defending them against this violation honors you.
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Our organization has been actively involved in street work in Athens for 8 years, meeting women and men in prostitution in the brothels, bars, hotels and streets where they work, and making contact with between 100 and 150 individuals weekly.
Although prostitution is legal in Greece, very few of our contacts work within the system. One recent estimate suggests that the total number of women in prostitution in Greece is near 13,000. Of that number, less than 10 percent are legally registered and thus able to access the health benefits and other support services needed.
The vast majority of unregistered prostitutes in Greece are victims of trafficking, and the challenges facing these women are compounded by the Greek Government's unwieldy response to the need for clear, realistic and broadly understood means for victim identification.
Victims of human trafficking in Greece are still regularly issued deportation orders as illegal immigrants. Countries of origin include, but are not limited to, Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Nigeria, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. The largest single group of women is from Nigeria and comprises almost 40 percent of Lost Coin's total contacts.
In anticipation of increased demand for prostitution around the Athens Olympics in 2004, Lost Coin and other NGOs began planning intervention and outreach, targeting the young women who we expected to be trafficked into Athens.
During the Olympics in Sydney, experts estimate that 10,000 women flooded the city to meet the demand for sexual services. In Athens, police began monitoring outgoing e-mails as known traffickers searched the Balkans and Eastern Europe for victims, young women speaking English, French or German, young women with big problems or big dreams that would dispose them to taking big risks.
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In the months leading up to August 2004, one academic familiar with traffickers and routes warned of an influx of as many as 2,000 women over the weeks of the Athens games. The Greek Government responded by increasing security on land and sea borders, by training trafficking monitors to ride motorcycle patrol through areas known for illegal prostitution, by funding the creation of leaflets on sexual health and sexually transmitted diseases which were targeted at the women, and by arranging for access to free legal aid for victims of trafficking at each of the five Olympic cities through agreements with local bar associations in each city. No initiatives, however, were taken to address the demand side of the equation.
In a decision which starkly divided Greek society, the municipality of Athens chose to license more brothels. The international community joined local advocacy groups in criticizing the Athens authorities for expanding the availability of prostitution during the games.
The city's stated goal was to enforce illegal brothels to meet minimum age and health standards or face closure; however, efforts for securing compliance were met with a major strike at the prostitutes' union, and the pressure from the strikers led the city government to relax its rules, further easing zoning restrictions on brothels and removing other barriers to expansion. Lobbying by Greek feminist groups was successful in stopping plans known for major hotel-like megabrothels similar to those which will be in operation during the World Cup.
Local NGOs did their part as well, preparing literature campaigns aimed at providing assistance to women who had been trafficked, increasing the frequency of the street work, and creating new teams for data gathering specifically around the trafficking of children. Lost Coin, our organization, sought to expand its network of victim support services in possible countries of origin and repatriation, and to locate materials on sexual health, basic human rights and spiritual counsel in those languages. Bilingual and multilingual outreach volunteers speaking the languages of the region were also actively cultivated.
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Coordination and cooperation among NGOs across a broad spectrum of political conviction and faith positions were significant components of the antitrafficking message.
Street work during the Olympics yielded unexpected results. We were not meeting new victims of trafficking. Of the new faces, few were identifiable as victims of trafficking, and even fewer had entered the country recently. Our experience seemed to hold up around the city. There was no identifiable increase in prostitution around the Athens Olympics. It became a matter of national and even international news. The Greek Union of Prostitutes even reported a decrease in demand compared to the previous year.
While I am sure that the measures taken by the government were to good effect, they alone are insufficient to explain this result, and I am aware of no other attempts to explain the static, and even declining, demand.
Today, as we observe our National Day of Prayer, I would like to suggest the surprising, and perhaps difficult to measure, effects of divine intervention. If it is appropriate for our Nation to acknowledge dependence upon God, how much more a small organization caught in the throes of a global problem. Lost Coin intentionally sought prayer from friends, churches and supporters worldwide for those most vulnerable to being trafficked, and we thank God for holding back the flood.
Trafficking is a trap, and events like the World Cup or the Olympics are the bait. Pushed by poverty and pulled by hopeful dreams of life in the west, exploited by opportunists, women suspend disbelief and their better judgment and gamble on a better life. Most gamblers lose.
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The outrage that we see around us and that we ourselves feel in inviting women to a rigged game within the context of this international sporting event must become the impetus for action. As a European NGO, Nea Zoi/Lost Coin calls for Chancellor Merkel to speak out against the victimization of women through prostitution and trafficking in her country.
We call for the protection, for reparation and for the compassionate provision of services to victims of trafficking within Germany, including shelter, legal aid, counseling, and the aggressive pursuit of viable economic alternatives for their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
We call for appropriate and proactive measures for victim identification, including training for police and NGO personnel. And further, for members of the 21 Germany NGOs offering services, to be enabled to gain access to women in the brothels and the private clubs and escort services, and other places where they may be found, as well as detention centers throughout Germany. We would like to see aggressive measures to address the demand for purchase of sexual services.
Nea Zoi/Lost Coin congratulates the German NGOs for their foresight in creating and offering a hotline to clients as well as to victims, and urges decisive action on the part of the German Government in punishing traffickers and those who purchase the services of these women.
Finally, we invite the world's heroes, those athletes that the World Cup celebrates, to become true heroes as they speak out against the exploitation of women around the Cup and other sporting events.
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Lost Coin opposes legalized prostitution, believing that all prostitution is profoundly traumatizing and assaults the dignity and worth of women. Legalized prostitution feeds the unhealthy appetites of a nation and allows for the creation of infrastructure and the suspension of moral judgment, which pave the way for trafficking. No nation with legalized prostitution should have Tier 1 status on America's TIP report. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Roemhildt follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MS. JENNIFER ROEMHILDT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LOST COIN, ATHENS, GREECE
Good afternoon. My name is Jennifer Roemhildt, and I am the founder and executive director of the NGO Nea Zoi: Association for the Support and Restoration of Individuals Involved in Prostitution in Athens, Greece. On behalf of the women I serve—many of whom might just as easily have found themselves in Germany this summer—I thank you for the time and effort you are expending to address and prevent the deep trauma which trafficking inflicts on women. Your role in defending them against this violation honors you.
Our organization has been actively involved in street work in Athens for eight years, meeting women and men in prostitution in the brothels, bars, hotels and streets where they work, and making contact with between 100–150 individuals weekly. Although prostitution is legal in Greece, very few of our contacts work within the system. One recent estimate suggests that the total number of women in prostitution in Greece is near 13,000. Of that number, less than ten percent are legally registered and able to access the health benefits and other support services needed.
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The vast majority of unregistered prostitutes in Greece are victims of trafficking, and the challenges facing these women are compounded by the Greek Government's unwieldy response to the need for clear, realistic, and broadly understood means for victim identification. Victims of human trafficking in Greece are still regularly issued deportation orders as illegal immigrants. Countries of origin include, but are not limited to: Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. The largest single group is women from Nigeria, comprising nearly 40% of Lost Coin's total contacts.
In anticipation of increased demand for prostitution around the Athens Olympics in 2004, Lost Coin and other NGOs began planning intervention and outreach targeting the young women we expected to be trafficked into Athens.
During the Olympics in Sydney, experts estimate that 10,000 women flooded the city to meet the demand for sexual services. In Athens, police began monitoring outgoing emails as known traffickers searched the Balkans and Eastern Europe for victims . . . young women speaking English, French, or German . . . young women with big problems or big dreams that would dispose them to taking big risks. In the months leading up to August 2004, one academic familiar with traffickers and routes warned of an ''influx'' of as many as 2,000 women over the weeks of the Athens Games.
The Greek Government responded by increasing security on land and sea borders, training 'trafficking monitors' to ride motorcycle patrol through areas known for illegal prostitution, by funding the creation of leaflets on sexual health and sexually transmitted diseases (targeting the women), and by arranging for access to free legal aid for victims of trafficking in each of the five Olympic cities (through agreements with the local bar associations in each city). No initiatives were taken addressing the demand side of the equation.
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In a decision which starkly divided Greek society, the municipality of Athens chose to license more brothels. The international community joined local advocacy groups in criticizing the Athens authorities for expanding the availability of prostitution during the Games. The city's stated goal was to force illegal brothels to meet minimum age and health standards or face closure. However, efforts at securing compliance were met with a major strike of the prostitutes' union. The pressure from the strikers led the city government to relax its rules, further easing zoning restrictions on brothels and removing other barriers to expansion. Lobbying by Greek feminist groups was successful in stopping plans for major hotel-like mega-brothels, similar to those which will be in operation during the World Cup.
Local NGOs prepared literature campaigns aimed at providing assistance to women trafficked into Greece, increased frequency of their street work, and created new teams for data gathering (specifically around the trafficking of children). Lost Coin sought to extend its network of victim support services in possible countries of origin (and repatriation) and to locate materials on sexual health, basic human rights, and spiritual counsel in those languages. Bi-lingual and multi-lingual outreach volunteers speaking the languages of the region were also actively cultivated.
Coordination and cooperation among NGOs across a broad spectrum of political conviction and faith positions were significant components of the anti-trafficking message.
Street work during the Olympics yielded unexpected results: we were not meeting new victims of trafficking. Of the new faces, few were identifiable as victims of trafficking, and even fewer had entered the country recently. Our experience seemed to hold up around the city: no increase in prostitution around the Athens Olympics. It became a matter of national, and then international, news. The Greek Union of Prostitutes even reported a decrease in demand compared to the previous year. Why?
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While I am sure that the measures taken by the government were to good effect, they alone are insufficient to explain this result, and I am aware of no other attempts to explain the static, even declining, demand.
Today, as we observe our National Day of Prayer, I would like to suggest the surprising, and perhaps difficult to measure, effects of Divine Intervention. If it is appropriate for a nation to acknowledge dependence upon God, how much more a small organization caught in the throes of a global problem! Lost Coin intentionally sought prayer from friends, churches and supporters worldwide for those most vulnerable to being trafficked. We thank God for holding back the flood.
Trafficking is a trap. And an event like the World Cup—or the Olympics—is the bait. Pushed by poverty, pulled by hopeful dreams of life in the West, and exploited by opportunists, women suspend disbelief and their better judgment and gamble on a better life. Most gamblers lose.
The outrage we see and feel at inviting women to a rigged game—within the context of this international sporting event—must become the impetus for action. As a European NGO, Lost Coin calls for:
Chancellor Merkel to speak out against the victimization of women through prostitution and trafficking in her country
Protection, reparation, and the compassionate provision of services to victims of trafficking within Germany, including shelter, legal aid, counseling, and the aggressive pursuit of viable economic alternatives for their rehabilitation and reintegration into society
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Appropriate and proactive measures for victim identification, including training for police and NGO personnel. Members of the 21 German NGOs offering services should be enabled to gain access to the women in brothels, private clubs and escort services, on the streets and in other locations they may be found, as well as in detention facilities throughout Germany
Aggressive measures to address the demand for purchased sexual services. Lost Coin congratulates the German NGOs for their foresight in creating and offering a hotline to clients as well as victims, and urges decisive action on the part of the German Government in punishing traffickers and those who purchase the services of these women
Finally, we invite the world's heroes—those athletes the World Cup celebrates—to become TRUE heroes as they speak out against the exploitation of women around the Cup and other sporting events.
Lost Coin opposes legalized prostitution, believing that all prostitution is profoundly traumatizing and assaults the dignity and worth of women. Legalized prostitution feeds the unhealthy appetites of a nation, and allows for the creation of infrastructure and suspension of moral judgment which pave the way for trafficking. No nation with legalized prostitution should have Tier 1 status on America's TIP report.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much for your testimony, and hopefully the lessons learned from Athens—and I would agree with you that it all does begin with prayer. That is the spiritual dimension that is often left out in these discussions, so I thank you for bringing that to the table—and the unexpected outcome that did occur in Athens. And having met you immediately prior to the Olympics, when we were there on a human rights trip, and speaking specifically to the issue of trafficking, it is an honor to have you here, and thank you for sharing those thoughts with us. It is extraordinary.
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Congressman Pitts from Pennsylvania has joined us. Mr. Pitts.
Mr. PITTS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Although not on the Committee, I appreciate an opportunity to sit with you, and thank you for the invitation. I just wanted to stop by and express my appreciation for those of you who are working on this issue for speaking so eloquently about the issue.
You know, if this happens, it is going to just result in more violence against women and children. We need to get as much publicity on this issue and demand that the governments involved put a stop to it. So thank you very much for your work and for speaking out on this and letting us know what we can do to help you prevent this exploitation.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will yield back.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Pitts.
Ms. Chon.
STATEMENT OF MS. KATHERINE CHON, CO-FOUNDER AND CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, POLARIS PROJECT
Ms. CHON. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you very much for welcoming Polaris Project to this very important hearing. And due to time constraints, I, too, will give abbreviated remarks to my written testimony.
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A few days ago I met with a 14-person delegation from 14 different countries, and we were talking about how as an international community we can be more strategic in cracking down on human trafficking, because this is a global epidemic. And as we were talking, the issue of the World Cup in Germany came up over and over again. And there has been a lot in the media; this is a very important hearing here. And Polaris was trying to think about why is there such a focus on Germany, the World Cup, at this time? Strategically why do people need to get involved all around the world?
And we found an analogy that was very useful for us to understand what is happening right now and in the coming months. We borrowed something from the weather forecasting community. They refer to a period when there are severe weather patterns that merge and converge, and they create on its own these individual storms that have these disastrous impacts on the local community it involves. And when these three different multiple storms converge, it leads to what people call the perfect storm. There was a movie made about it.
And I am here to add my voice to the growing international alarm from academics, from policymakers, from service providers and survivors from around the world all pointing toward one ominous and foreboding reality. In 1 month's time, at the World Cup in Germany, the antitrafficking community will witness our incarnation of the perfect storm.
The first storm that is part of this recipe is the reality of the sex industry itself. A lot of times, at least here in the U.S., it is glamorized. Recently the Oscars awarded a song about domestic sex trafficking. And it is something that people joke about and laugh about because—and we believe it is because people don't have an understanding of what goes on at the ground level.
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And so Polaris is looking at the commercial sex industry, which is where the sex trafficking happens. We take a very progressive left approach, and that is why I appreciate Michael Horowitz's comments that this is a bipartisan issue. Everyone can come and unite on this issue because we recognize that there is a need for critical analysis that exposes the relationships of power within the sex industry. And I think there are a lot of discussions that haven't been happening recently, and that is something that I want to bring to the table today.
My main question is whose voices are being heard, whose voices have been heard when making policy decisions? We found in our last 4 years of working with multiple victims of human trafficking and survivors of modern-day slavery that there are very different actors within the commercial sex industry, and they don't all have the same interests. So therefore, it would be irresponsible and inaccurate for us to group all of their voices together as if they are representing one voice. What we find is that those with more power, the pimps, the brothel owners, the madams, the customers, those who define themselves as being in the upper tier of prostitution, they have been advocating very strongly and for the most part effectively for their own interests. Unfortunately, their interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of those with the least amount of power. The majority of the women and children in the commercial sex industry are the most marginalized, and their voices aren't being heard. So today I am here representing some of the voices we have come in contact with over the last few years.
The former population I mentioned about, they use their elite and empowered positions to collect the vast profits from within the sex industry or to maintain their access to buying women and children at their own will and because they feel entitled to. The latter population that I mentioned comes from the marginalized populations, the very poor; immigrant communities; individuals from minority groups; those who have been abused physically, sexually, emotionally during their younger years, and they suffer the greatest amount of harm in the commercial sex industry, and they are the victims of sex trafficking.
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And, Mr. Chairman, you mentioned earlier in your remarks some of the statistics out there, and I will add a couple more. According to a five-country study, for those women and children in prostitution, 62 percent are raped or reported incidents of being raped or gang-raped; 73 percent reported being physically assaulted; and for those in prostitution, they have a 40 times greater chance—greater rates of mortality than the average figure out there, 40 times. Imagine what their daily lives look like. And many of the success stories that we find at Polaris doesn't happen very regularly in other areas.
So given these horrific conditions, the reason why the widespread violence and psychological abuse by the pimps and traffickers to control the women and victims of trafficking become crystal clear, and from our position on the progressive left, I think we need to make our position crystal clear and stand unwaveringly for those who are most marginalized. So that is the violent reality of the commercial sex industry as a whole in general.
The second storm that is brewing out there is a demand for commercial sex and sex trafficking. And many of the other witnesses here have already touched upon that. Mr. Chairman, you touched upon that in your remarks. And what we find in our experience—we mostly worked with victims of trafficking in the Washington, DC, area—most of our work has been in the United States. When there are major sporting events that are smaller in scale compared to the World Cup, for example, the Super Bowl, the NBA All Star weekend for basketball, the World Series for baseball, major golfing tournaments, major conventions, we hear from our clients how the traffickers migrate to those locations because of the increase in demand because they know that they can make profits from that increase in demand.
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The reason why we care about this is because—not just for the sake of caring about the increase in demand, but because of what it does—what impact it has on the lives of the women and children we work with. For example, the American young women and children who are victims of sex trafficking within the U.S., they are given nightly quotas by their traffickers. In the DC area the average is $500 a night. And our clients tell us when they are brought to convention areas or cities where there are major sporting events, those quotas of $500 a night spike to 1,000, $2,000 per night.
So realistically what does that look like for that young woman or child who is put out on the street, not allowed to come in until that quota is met; what does it take for that young woman to meet a $2,000 quota, and where during those periods she may be forced to be out on the streets for 24, 48 extra hours to meet that quota, if she doesn't meet it, she either can't come in, she is beaten, physically abused, threatened in many ways. And the role of the demand in terms of the violence that the women and children experience is very real, and that is why we care about the increase in demand.
And so if you think about the sporting events, such as the Super Bowl and other events, and then you compare it to the World Cup, the World Cup, second to the Olympics, is the most international sporting event, where people are—millions will be coming into Germany from all around the world. And so what kind of demand spike will we see in Germany in the coming months? So that is the second storm.
The third storm—again, also some of the witnesses on the panel talked about it—the legalization of pimping and the legalization of purchasing commercial sex. So in an environment where you have those two first storms on their own, it is damaging and destructive to the lives of women and children who are victimized. Together it is even more so. And then within the context where the prostitution or the pimping or purchasing of commercial sex is legalized, that number, the effect balloons on its own. It exacerbates all the other factors that I mentioned. And for us to understand why the traffickers love legalized and regulated zones, we need to get inside the mind of how they operate.
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Traffickers understand better than we do that in countries where there is legalized or regulated prostitution—there is no country in the world, including the United States, where we have the capacity and the resources to effectively regulate every nook and cranny of the commercial sex industry where we can prevent sex trafficking. And so, in effect, what tends to happen, very much like in Germany, there are these superficial attempts to regulate the industry, but in practice it is underregulated or, at worst, deregulated.
Research has shown, as people have mentioned already, that in countries where prostitution is legal, sex trafficking increases. The recent report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has—Germany is one of the highest receiving countries for trafficked victims.
The other danger of legalization is the normalization of exploitation. When we work with women and children who come through our doors, it takes so much for us to convince them that, when they talk about being thrown out of moving cars, being stabbed in the head with screwdrivers, when we ask them do you see that as abuse, they look us straight in the face and they say no because it has been so normalized. And that is what they feel, is the day-to-day of their existence.
And so what happens in a country where there is a legalization of prostitution, that type of exploitation is normalized, the government is complicit, community members are complicit, and it is just accepted as a normal type of life for a certain class of people. And then that impact, in terms of trying to get law enforcement involved and service providers, and even trying to convince the victims that they are in situations where they are being exploited and they don't deserve to be in those situations, it is an uphill battle to try to combat that type of culture.
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And so in sum, our recommendations, in addition to those that were already mentioned, is for the U.S. Government to work with the government in Germany to make sure that law enforcement and service providers in Germany and in neighboring countries are getting the funding that they need to protect the victims adequately—and this isn't just during the World Cup, but also after the World Cup. What is the responsibility of the German Government for all the trauma that the women and children are facing? So please take a long-term approach there. And for the German Government to recognize the real impact, it is not just a policy question, the real impact of the legalization and why it is a factor in this perfect storm.
The thing that scares us the most is the silence and complicity, not hearing the German Government taking a strong stance on this.
And with that, I want to end with the words of a great advocate for human rights who once said:
''I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.''
This is a moment in history when the modern-day slave trade is the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world. It is a time when questions will be asked generations from now, where did you stand, what did you do? We hope that the German Government and governments and peoples everywhere will be able to answer in sound conscience, we stood with the oppressed and did everything within our power.
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Thank you very much.
Mr. SMITH. Ms. Chon, thank you very much for that excellent statement.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Chon follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MS. KATHERINE CHON, CO-FOUNDER AND CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, POLARIS PROJECT
Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Payne, and Subcommittee members,
Thank you for convening this hearing to discuss the upcoming World Cup in Germany and the growing international concern with the surge in human trafficking that may result. I am pleased to submit testimony on behalf of Polaris Project, a leading grassroots non-governmental organization combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
As the World Cup approaches next month, there are many who are in busy preparation for the upcoming festivities, including athletes, the government and people of Germany, local businesses, international tourists, and the media. However, there is one group of individuals that is also in busy preparation, due to the tremendous profits they expect to be generating—the sex traffickers.
Human trafficking and its relation to the World Cup have been topics of great discussion within the international anti-trafficking community throughout the past few months. Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to meet with a delegation of anti-trafficking advocates from 14 different countries, and our conversation kept drifting back to our shared grave concerns about the World Cup. In the meeting, representatives from Kenya, Romania, and other countries described to me how they have already begun to see cases of women from their countries trafficked to Germany.
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My heart sunk as I listened to their words, because with only one month until the World Cup begins, their stories confirmed what so many of us in the anti-trafficking movement have been deeply afraid of: a worldwide surge of unprecedented sex trafficking activity to Germany to meet the demand for commercial sex associated with the World Cup. Committee members—those of us working on the ground are offering the initial reports that the early warning signs are already happening. Polaris Project has already encountered the first harbingers of the deluge to come, a call to one of our hotlines involving a woman recently trafficked to Germany and forced into prostitution.
In the weather forecasting community, there's a specific term used to describe a rare convergence of what are otherwise, even in isolation, severe atmospheric events. The term refers to those extraordinary periods when severe weather patterns merge, at the worst possible of times, to create a single vicious and deadly storm of unprecedented proportions. They call it ''The Perfect Storm.''
I am here to add my voice to the growing international alarm from academics, policy-makers, service providers, and survivors—all pointing towards one ominous and foreboding reality: in one month's time, at the World Cup in Germany, the anti-trafficking community will witness our incarnation of The Perfect Storm, a convergence of three distinct problems that will unfold at the highest intensity, at the worst possible time, perpetrating severe harm to thousands of women and children.
The Reality of the Sex Industry
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The First Storm is the nature of the commercial sex industry itself, including the commercial sex trade in Germany. The traffickers and those that benefit from trafficking promote an image of women who freely choose to be in prostitution, are making huge amounts of money, and are having a great time doing it. It is the 'Pretty Woman' myth that many might like to believe, but that hides the violence, trauma, and economic exploitation inflicted by the pimps and customers on the vast majority of people prostituted in the sex industry. It is also the myth that has been embraced by much of popular culture and many individuals in order to justify their inaction or ignorance on the issue. But as Polaris Project and hundreds of other organizations like us that work everyday with people in the sex industry know, the 'Pretty Woman' myth does not reflect the reality on the streets and in the brothels for a majority of women and children, where there is nearly ubiquitous use of violence and psychological abuse by the pimps, traffickers, and customers.
Polaris Project takes a progressive left approach to the sex industry, recognizing the need for critical analysis that exposes the relationships of power within the sex trade. Different actors in the sex industry do not have the same interests, and it would be irresponsible and inaccurate to group them together having one homogenous voice. Those with more power—the pimps and madams, the customers, and those in 'upper-tier prostitution'—have always advocated strongly, and for the most part effectively, for their own interests. Their interests, however, are diametrically opposed to the interests of those with the least power—the majority of prostituted and trafficked women and children. The former population uses their elite and empowered positions to collect the vast profits from within the sex industry or to maintain their access to buying women and children at will. The latter population comes almost invariably from marginalized populations, including from the very poor, from immigrant and minority groups, and from abusive homes. They also suffer the greatest amount of harm from the commercial sex industry. Research has shown that those who are prostituted face on average a 62% chance of being raped or gang-raped, a 73% chance of being physically assaulted, and a 40 times greater chance of mortality than the average person. Given these horrific conditions, the reasons for the widespread violence and psychological abuse by the pimps and traffickers to control the women and children they victimize become crystal clear. The position of the progressive left must be equally as clear—standing unwaveringly with those who are the most marginalized.
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The Demand for Commercial Sex and Sex Trafficking
The Second Storm is the impending rise in demand from the World Cup for commercial sex and sex trafficking. Human trafficking is a market-based criminal industry driven by two primary factors: high profits and low risk. The central force behind the high profits associated with sex trafficking is the relentless demand for commercial sex present at some level in almost all societies. From our direct experience as service providers for victims of trafficking and as a representative of our clients' voices, we know that large sporting events, conventions, and other similar gatherings are closely tied to a spike in demand for commercial sex, and, in turn, for sex trafficking. These events attract large numbers of males, including the Superbowl for football, the NBA All-Star Weekend for basketball, and the World Series for baseball. Behind the trophies and cheers is the hidden suffering of women and children like the clients we serve that are affected by the rise in demand.
In Washington, DC, for example, the domestic sex trafficking victims whom we serve are forced to meet nightly quotas that average around $500 dollars. There are women and girls right now as I speak who have these quotas held over their heads and will have to meet them tonight in our Capitol city. To meet the quota, women and children as young as 12 years old must engage in numerous commercial sex acts with customers each night, in locations such as hourly hotel rooms, apartments, alleyways, and parked cars. The punishment for not meeting a quota on a given night is a severe beating, starvation, rape, or torture by a pimp, or being forced to continue to provide commercial sex for upwards of 24–48 hours until the quota is met.
There are two key points to understand about these quotas. First, the women and girls we are describing do not keep ANY of the money from their quota each night. This is a widespread misconception that must be corrected. In these situations, even though the money may pass through the woman's hands throughout the night, 100% of the money goes to the sex trafficker at the end of each night. If a woman or child is caught keeping any of the money for herself, an act absurdly known as ''skimming off the top,'' she faces a severe beating from her trafficker. Second, quotas are directly correlated with demand, just like profit projections in any market-based system. This means that when demand for commercial sex is high, traffickers increase their quotas, and when demand for commercial sex is reduced or non-existent, traffickers simply cannot continue to enforce quotas at certain unattainable rates. The quota system demonstrates the extent to which traffickers are immediately responsive to demand. Our clients have seen how the market forces of supply and demand are impacted by events like the World Cup, and how pimps raise their quotas from $500/night to $2000/night during these peak demand periods. For one of our clients, the higher quota meant enduring oral, vaginal, and anal sex from up to 10 more men every night.
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The World Cup not only fits this general pattern but stands out as a unique global attraction where the forces of demand will occur on an enormous scale. Not only is soccer celebrated with fanatical passion in a majority of countries, but the World Cup, second only to the Olympics, is one of the few times when such a large number of countries come together to compete. Hence, it comes as no surprise that millions are expected to flock to Germany to attend. Many will be celebrating the games, many will be visiting famous tourist attractions, and unfortunately, many will be flooding the commercial sex industry.
The sky-rocketing demand for commercial sex is the second storm that is converging with the World Cup, and the traffickers are prepared to collect the profits. There is a myth that the mega-brothels being built for Germany's World Cup will be populated by ''jet-setting high-end'' women in prostitution who see commercial sex as an opportunity for an empowered life. Perhaps there will be a few women in those situations, but the vast majority of the women and children sent to meet the demand will come from the traffickers and the victims they exploit.
The Legalization of Pimping and Buying of Commercial Sex
In any environment, the convergence of the first two storms would be a cause for urgent concern and would represent a serious challenge for law enforcement to adequately protect victims and arrest the perpetrators. The Third Storm, however, exacerbates all of the factors described above through creating the worst possible of environments in which to reduce harm: the legalization of pimping and legalization of the buying of commercial sex.
The traffickers are supportive of the legalized model because they know that 'regulation' in practice means deregulation. No country in the world has the political will or resources to support the law enforcement and service provider staffing required to meaningfully regulate a massive sex industry. Regulation has in practice meant a thin layer of regulated commercial sex businesses that have opted into the system, resting on top of a far vaster group of underground operations. The underground operations have correctly made the calculation that greater profits can be generated through not paying taxes, ignoring basic safety standards for the women, and engaging in the trafficking of children. Without a commensurately vast apparatus to meaningfully monitor and enforce against the thousands of underground operations, the increase in demand under a legalized system dramatically drives the expansion of this sector of sex trafficking.
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Research has shown that countries that have legalized prostitution (in law or in practice) have seen an increase in human trafficking. In a recent report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Germany was listed as one of the primary destination countries for trafficked persons in Western Europe with a ''very high'' incidence of human trafficking. Unlike the success seen in countries like Sweden with abolitionist policies, legalization has become a failed social experiment.
Proponents of legalized prostitution point out the benefits to some women who are in positions of greater control and power, but who form a very small minority of individuals within the commercial sex industry. They argue for legalization in order to protect their 'right' to have customers and managers and to operate freely, even if the policy decisions are at the expense of the majority of people in the industry who are not in similar positions of meaningful choice. As a progressive group, this is not a position that we can support. When a conflict arises between the narrow legal rights of the more privileged versus the protection of the general welfare of the more marginalized, we believe the general welfare of the marginalized must be prioritized. As the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) stated, ''to identify the prostitution industry as a system of exploitation, discrimination, and abuse is not to stigmatize its victims; it is to stand in solidarity with them.''
If legalized prostitution has not helped to curb human trafficking, who has it benefited? The legalized and under-regulated environment in Germany has normalized a system of exploitation in an industry that is highly unequal in power. Traffickers take advantage of the normalization of exploitation and the increased demand, which is facilitated through the ability to purchase commercial sex easily, anonymously, and without accountability. Traffickers know that the high demand that is present in a legalized prostitution structure cannot be met by the limited number of women operating without traffickers. They exploit the inevitable profit potential of the market by trafficking women and children at lower cost and who will be forced to provide the types of sexual acts that those with greater levels of choice find to be unsafe, unhealthy, or dehumanizing.
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Legalized prostitution also helps the traffickers recruit and maintain control over their victims. A normalized environment for exploitation makes it easier for the traffickers to convince women and children that there is nothing unusual about the violent reality of their daily lives. A legalized environment gives conflicted messages to a victim, where the default position is to believe the perceptions of the trafficker, as reinforced by the support of the government, community, and popular culture around her. If the traffickers are able to convince the governing bodies and the general public that their exploitative activities are natural and even helpful to the community, how easy is it for traffickers to target and convince women and children who are even more vulnerable to believing in the traffickers' false promises?
Modern-day slavery is one of the most urgent human rights crises of our time. There should be no country that is uncertain in its opposition to all factors that facilitate this egregious crime, or they will face international condemnation in the present and the judgment of history in the future. The storms that drive sex trafficking in Germany will not end with the final goal of the World Cup, but it is my hope that the German government will use this opportunity to make a new beginning in its commitment to the abolition of trafficking in all its forms.
Recommendations
Polaris Project makes the following recommendations:
1) The U.S. Congress and international community should strongly condemn any facilitation or cooperation by the German government to allow the inevitable rise in demand associated with the World Cup to fuel increased commercial sex industry activity and the resulting sex trafficking.
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2) The U.S. Congress and international community should urge the German government to dramatically increase law enforcement and service provider funding in preparation for the increase in sex trafficking likely to occur.
3) Recognizing the role of legalization in promoting sex trafficking, the German government should criminalize pimping and buying commercial sex, while providing increased support and services for those victimized in the sex industry.
CONCLUSION
I end with the words of a great advocate for human rights who once said, ''I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.''
This is a moment in history when the modern-day slave trade is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. It is a time when it will be asked generations from now: Where did you stand? What did you do? We hope that the German government, and governments and peoples everywhere, will be able to answer in sound conscience: we stood with the oppressed, and did everything within our power.
Mr. SMITH. I would like to yield to Mr. Payne, our Ranking Member, if he has any opening comments.
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Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for calling this very important hearing.
We know that the issue of trafficking and prostitution in the world in general is horrendous, but as we are focusing on the World Cup and Germany's World Cup brothels, I think that it is even more important that we focus on this issue, as has been indicated and as our testimony has shown, that prostitution is a major industry in Germany. According to the State Department, estimates range for as many as 400,000 people working in the sex trade. And we, as an ally, we should really attempt to put more pressure on the Government of Germany.
There is—in addition to this poor public policy, in my opinion, we had to pressure the German Government to eliminate bribes as a tax write-off for doing business in Third World countries, in particular in Africa. We have heard so many instances about how corrupt some of the new heads of state are in some countries in Africa—and then Asia and Latin America before, but right now my focus has been on Africa—but we never talk about those who are doing the corrupting, we never talk about those who offer the bribes, we never talk about those who—as I indicated, it is not against the law in many Western European countries, but it was a tax-deferred item, in other words, almost encouraged, in Germany. Now, how do you as a businessperson from the United States compete on a level playing field when a German businessman can say, this is what I will pay you, and you get 10 percent, and I will write it off so that I don't, you know, have my company harmed by this illegal activity.
So I am glad that we are exposing these issues, and hopefully they can be overcome.
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While we are not here to debate the merits of the law, even though we certainly are opposed to it, which allows for prostitution, we are focusing on the issues of trafficking because it intersects with the German sex trade. According to the State Department reports in 2003, the last y