VANCOUVER (CP) – The 2010 Winter Olympics will draw sporting fans from around the world, but some of them will be looking for after-hours entertainment and human rights advocates worry Vancouver could become a magnet for women forced into prostitution by organized crime.

Anti-trafficking advocates around the world are fuming over Germany’s decision to construct so-called sex huts or performance boxes for use by prostitutes servicing men during the month-long World Cup soccer championship starting June 9.

Prostitution is legal in Germany but the government is being criticized for subsidizing new brothels for the tournament that involves 32 countries.

“Our concern with trafficking around the Olympics is that there’s a huge rise in demand for cheap sex around large sporting events,” said Michelle Miller, executive director of Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity (REED).

“The public needs to be aware that exploitation is going to be taking place and there’s not going to be thousands of women who are wanting to fill these jobs willingly.”

Lee Lakeman, regional representative of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, said all levels of government need to start addressing the trafficking of people for prostitution as a serious violation of human rights.

“Somebody from the Canadian government, somebody from the B.C. government and somebody from the Vancouver city government needs to stand up to the plate and say we are not open for this kind of business.”

Daisy Kler, a crisis worker at Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, said more than half the women she’s worked with have been trafficked – mostly from Asia and eastern Europe.

Typically, traffickers lure women with promises of jobs that will supposedly pay them many times what they would earn in their home country.

But the reality is they’re forced to work as prostitutes in massage parlours and must repay thousands of dollars in debt for living expenses and forged passports.

Non-governmental organizations say women are sometimes kidnapped, beaten and drugged before being brought to Canada for an industry that involves low risk and high profits for the traffickers.

Government and police officials are aware of the problem and concerned about the potential the Games pose for traffickers.

Susanne Dahlin is executive director of the victims services division in the Public Safety Ministry. She said her officials and others from the Ministry of Children and Family Development have been meeting for the last six months to discuss the issue.

“Obviously there potentially is an issue with children being trafficked as well,” Dahlin said.

“We’re working with all our government partners, both provincially and federally, and with a number of non-governmental organizations to try and jointly address this issue.”

B.C. officials are also meeting with their counterparts in the Justice Department in the next two weeks to discuss funding a pilot project to respond to the human trafficking problem, Dahlin said.

The RCMP have been part of the discussions.

“What’s frightening for me is that organized crime will see the Olympics as a venue that will increase demand and they’re of course, going to exploit that opportunity,” said Cpl. Norm Massie, the RCMP’s human trafficking awareness co-ordinator.

Massie said non-governmental organizations are key to identifying, rescuing and protecting victims before police get involved.

But Lakeman said women who have been trafficked from abroad are often too afraid to go to police because they’ve been told they or their families will be harmed or killed if they talk to authorities.

Human trafficking was added as a specific offence to Canada’s Criminal Code in 2002, with fines of up to $1 million and life in prison.

The first trial under the law is now underway in Vancouver. A man is facing 22 prostitution and human smuggling counts. 

In March, the Future Group, which has worked with trafficked victims in Southeast Asia and West Africa, issued a report that criticized Canada for failing to comply with a United Nations agreement that requires countries to protect victims of human trafficking.

The Conservative government responded two months later by adopting a policy that allows immigration officers to issue temporary resident permits for up to four months to victims of human trafficking.

Monte Solberg, minister of citizenship and immigration Canada, said in an interview the critical report spurred the Tories to try and help victims who are now provided medical care and counselling while they stay in Canada.

“This is the period we would encourage them to talk to the RCMP further so that we can try and identify who are traffickers are and catch them,” Solberg said.

“These are clearly very serious problems and I think Canada, for its own good but also for its reputation, needs to be aware of them and take them seriously and ensure that we do all we can to protect women and vulnerable people.”

Lakeman responded that the temporary resident permits aren’t good enough because they’re just “a straw being offered to a drowning person.

“All they’re really trying to do is get witnesses in a court case,” she said.

Solberg disputed that, saying the new policy is aimed at helping women whose experiences often leave them traumatized.

“But obviously if they wish to go beyond that and help us catch the people that are doing the trafficking, they don’t just help themselves they help potentially dozens of other people who are victims as well,” he said.

“We want to do what we can to help these people and to make sure that Canada is not known as some kind of a haven for people who to traffic in persons.”

However, Solberg conceded the government relies on non-governmental organizations to help women who have nowhere else to go and that those organizations lack funding.

“It’s a bit of a patchwork, I think, in terms of the type of support that victims would get in terms of their living expenses and that kind of thing,” he said.

“We’re trying to, I guess, get the ball rolling and hopefully others can step up to the plate and help out a bit as well. Admittedly, this is not ideal. It would be great to know for sure that people will step into some kind of support, initially, to get them over the hump.”

Shuv Majumdar, executive director of the Future Group, said police need to have significant resources to deal with human trafficking at the Olympics, giving the issue top priority alongside other potential concerns such as bomb threats and terrorism.

Anti-trafficking advocates note that Sweden is an international leader in introducing a law in 1999 that prohibits prostitution by addressing it as violence against women and offering support to victims.

In 2002, Sweden also launched a massive public education campaign aimed at raising awareness about prostitution and global trafficking.

© Canadian Press 2006