Human trafficking can take place at any time and in any place around the globe. Sporting events have become known as infamous human trafficking hotspots due to a high influx of visitors. Large sporting events provide cover for traffickers and the network that is already in place. Spectators, fans, and even the athletes themselves are vulnerable to traffickers, which is why awareness is crucial. Whether it is the threat presented by a large event like the Super Bowl, or the international networks of the Olympics, human trafficking is always present.
Why Sporting Events are a Popular Place for Traffickers
Sporting events create an influx of financial and personnel resources. Local businesses benefit from the increased activity. Unfortunately, the trafficking industry profits, as well, whether the event is intranational like the NBA Finals or international like the Olympics.
Venues Provide a Place for Alluring Victims
Sporting events in general provide ideal places for traffickers to allure and manipulate victims into their network of traffic. In locations where the Olympics take place, the amount of trafficking skyrockets. Sex trafficking, in particular, experiences a large spike around sporting events. These international competitions provide an ideal environment for traffickers to target people even more so than professional sporting events in America.
When two or more countries come together to compete, the event brings with it spectators from distinct cultures, sometimes with different languages. This diverse crowd provides a form of camouflage for traffickers since people from other cultures may be reluctant to report abnormalities in behavior if they do not understand a situation or they do not know if someone is asking for help due to several different language barriers. Uncertain observers create circumstances for the bystander effect to take place. People are less willing to say something about a dangerous situation when in an unfamiliar environment due to the foreign nature of their surroundings.
The Super Bowl and Human Trafficking
The American Super Bowl is over fifty years old. Although it is a time of sporting competition and celebration, the Super Bowl also has a nefarious side; it is reportedly a large source of human trafficking. People hope to obtain good seats to view the game but in truth, spectators—including children—are at risk of getting kidnapped during the event. Trafficking victims have reported they were trafficked to the city of the Super Bowl during the popular event.
With the Super Bowl being such a large event, traffickers are able to operate more easily than usual. The Super Bowl itself does not directly promote or increase human trafficking but provides an ideal environment for it. A lack of data for the volume of trafficking leaves some organizations hesitant to claim a connection between the Super Bowl and human trafficking. Nonetheless, the event is now being used to draw attention to human trafficking.
The Super Bowl’s popularity in the United States is the focus of attention, but this issue stretches across the entire world. Human traffickers use any type large sporting events to traffic victims. Human traffickers will use social media and public posts to lure victims by promising them better seats or some other form of exchange. This allows the traffickers to capture victims and exploit them. Many people are exploited through these major sporting events, and the events positively correlate to statistical increases in human trafficking cases.
The Network Created by International Leagues
International sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup present a different array of problems compared to the leagues like the NFL that compete mostly intranationally. Having sporting events in different countries creates a highway through which traffickers can move and transport people largely unnoticed due to the massive influx in people. With thousands of athletes, coaches, staff, and spectators, it is easy to hide in plain sight. In industries like the sex-trafficking world, traffickers can move from event to event largely unnoticed.
For young athletes, with little experience in the world of professional sports, another challenge arises: being discovered as a talent. Thousands of athletes come from small towns or villages which are all they have ever known. Agents and talent scouts scour the world trying to find the next superstars. It is a numbers game to these recruiters; try to recruit as many potential clients as possible, so if one turns out to be a star, they are under contract.
The problem, however, is that many of these athletes are too poor to afford travelling to try-outs or other needed events, which in turn results in an attempt to find more nefarious forms of travel. Hence, they fall into the hands of awaiting traffickers. This situation is a problem on its own, but it is compounded by traffickers posing as agents, using the ruse to lure victims.
Government Action
Some government offices have begun to take preventative measures. In 2014, the House of Representatives and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs met a few days prior to the Super Bowl to review the plans they had in place to prevent or expose trafficking. The chairman of the subcommittee at the time, Christopher Smith, acknowledged that the Super Bowl “acts as a sex trafficking magnet” and seeks to put an end to such exploitation. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie took many steps to combat human trafficking including distributing flyers to emergency care professions and prepping the New Jersey Human trafficking Task Force (NJHTTF). The months of planning and preparation paid off as law enforcement successfully arrested over 45 traffickers and rescued 56 victims, 16 of which were minors. Statistically, the number of trafficking-related arrests spiked during the week that led up to the 2014 Super Bowl.
2022 Operation Reclaim and Rebuild
For 2022, the Super Bowl was held in Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Force holds an annual week-long initiative called Operation Reclaim and Rebuild that aims to rescue victims of human trafficking. In 2022, the operation took place during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. Through a coordinated effort, around 200 investigators focused their attention on areas where human trafficking occurs. The operation was widely successful with over 400 arrests made and over 70 victims were rescued.
Athletes as Human Trafficking Victims
While trafficking happens to people of all backgrounds, certain risk factors are characteristic of a trafficking victim profile. Individuals of society that lack social status, acceptance, and legal protection are at greater risk of becoming trafficked victims specifically in countries governed by weak governments as these areas reportedly experience higher trafficking rates. For these reasons, it comes as no surprise that athletes who lack social status and are from impoverished communities that offer little to no opportunity for them to flourish in the sports-world often fall victim to trafficking and exploitation.
Alluring Victims with Promise of Better Future
Trafficking of young, migrant athletes has become more prevalent in recent years and often occurs to athletes who seek greater opportunity in the sports industry. Preying on aspiring athletes who come from struggling backgrounds or poorer regions of the world, traffickers use the promise of opportunity and success as a lure for tricking them into believing they are being recruited for more prestigious sporting clubs often in distant locations.
Kesselly Kamara was only 14 years old when he and his fellow underaged teammates found themselves victims of trafficking in this way of false promise. As their home country, Liberia, had no soccer academy, all players were sent to Laos after being forced into signing six-year contracts that promised them salaries, accommodations, and the opportunity of a better future. These promises were never fulfilled because the academy never existed. What these children unknowingly signed was a six-year deal into modern slavery, and they were told that they could not leave unless they had paid their traffickers. The young athletes were exploited for labor and money that they simply did not have.
Trafficking in the sports industry also occurs in Western countries. Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy, well-known American financier who was accused of trafficking numerous girls in recent years, is just one example of how trafficking is significantly overlooked even in the United States. While he had no exact victim profile, a dance studio was one of his many targets. There, Epstein would use his wealth and high social status in coercing teenage girls into believing that he could help them advance their dance careers.
Raising Awareness about Human Trafficking in Sports
A few organizations focus their efforts specifically on human trafficking in sports and the athletic community. Mission 89, for instance, aims to mitigate child trafficking in sports through research and statistics to prevent it from happening to others. The It’s a Penalty campaign, launched in 2014, tries to use major sporting events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl to educate and raise awareness to people across the globe. This campaign has grown immensely, reaching an average total of 180 million people worldwide and has facilitated the protection of 16,955 victims of abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking, as well as prevented thousands more from being victimized globally. Educating others and raising awareness will not end this tragedy in a short amount of time, but over time, every victim of abuse saved is a person’s life and freedom given back.
Sporting events are meant to entertain people with the rush of excitement from watching players compete on the court or field. They are enjoyable social gatherings that foster bonds and culture, yet it is important to be aware of the darker side. Awareness is the first step to putting an end to human trafficking. The more people identify red flags and report on suspicious behavior, the more traffickers will find themselves in trouble. It is also essential for young athletes themselves to be cautious and wary when offered contracts.
The Asservo Project aims to spread awareness about human trafficking in all its forms, sporting events and beyond. The organization works not only to put an end to human trafficking but also to ensure victims get the help and recovery they need. Support the cause by donating or finding out how you can help to raise awareness.
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