EU wants tighter visa rules to stymie World Cup sex trade
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS -Justice commissioner Franco Frattini has suggested that visa requirements should be re-introduced for all non-EU citizens travelling to Germany for this summer's football world cup.
The move comes as a response to outcries from NGOs and politicians about an expected boom of forced prostitution during the sports event, with estimates of the total number of women and girls that may be brought to Germany for sexual purposes varying from 40,000 to 100,000.
Join EUobserver today
Get the EU news that really matters
Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.
Choose your plan
... or subscribe as a group
Already a member?
"We need to introduce and re-introduce temporary visas for all third countries - even those not requiring visas so far - but which are possible origin countries for trafficked women and children," commissioner Frattini said, speaking at a seminar on forced prostitution in the European Parliament on Wednesday (8 March).
The visa demands would be issued for a period of up to 45 days- sufficiently long enough before and after the event to stop the sex trade from establishing itself.
Mr Frattini said that each and every application for a visa from women in the suspected countries of origin for forced prostitution should be checked, as a lot of the times "the women lie and say they will attend for instance cultural events" in the application.
The EU commissioner also announced that he had urged member states of the Schengen border-free area to impose stricter border and passport controls during the event, a move that will affect the ten new EU members who are not part of the zone yet.
A "Schengen" visa allows visitors to travel freely within the area which includes 13 EU states as well as Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.
Women from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine top the list of prostitutes in Germany, but out of these only Ukrainian and Russian travellers currently need a visa to enter the EU.
Performance boxes already at place
Earlier this year, MEPs adopted a report with strategies to prevent trafficking of women and children, containing an explicit request that German authorities take "appropriate measures" when hosting the football event this summer.
Prostitution is legal in Germany in certain city zones, but with thousands of football fans attending the world cup, German cities face up to a 30 percent increase in sex trade during the event, NGOs have reported.
In Berlin, within walking distance from the main football arena, a "super brothel" with 70 rooms for 600 customers daily has been built, and in Dortmund and Cologne so-called "performance boxes" - mobile units equipped with snacks and condom vending machines, toilets, alarms and emergency exits - have been installed.
The client forgotten
Communication commissioner Margot Wallstrom who attended the same seminar, said "This was not what we envisaged with the internal market – an area where women are sold by the thousands with no respect for the dignity for human beings!"
"I come from a national background where treating women as commodities is an insult to all women. And also to all men," the commissioner said, speculating on whether it would be cheaper to buy the body of a person or a ticket to the football match during the cup.
"I would also like to underline the importance of focusing attention on the users – the men who exploit these women. They need to understand that this is not OK. Not at all!"
Commissioner Frattini at the seminar said that forced prostitution was "a perversion of the values of sport" and urged the football community to mobilise against the phenomenon, as in recent moves against racism in football.