Slavery at the Super Bowl? 5 Helpful Facts for Fans

This Sunday, near 100 million Americans and others around the world will gather to watch Super Bowl XLVII. Human trafficking public awareness campaigns are in full swing, targeting the host city and event attendees, making the link between sporting events and human trafficking. These campaigns have provided many fans with a critical introduction to human trafficking, or modern slavery. Here are five facts that you probably aren't hearing about in Super Bowl awareness campaigns.

1. Slavery involves both labor and sex trafficking.

There are up to 27 million people enslaved worldwide. Of those enslaved, 78 percent are in labor trafficking and 22 percent are in sex trafficking. However, anti-trafficking awareness campaigns around the Super Bowl and other sporting events typically focus only on sex trafficking despite unrealized predictions of increased sex trafficking at the 2012 Olympics and at several other large sporting events. This narrow focus excludes 78 percent of all trafficking and we need to be looking for both.

2. Human trafficking is not like Liam Neeson's movie Taken.

Some victims are kidnapped and abducted, but the vast majority is looking for work and is then forced, defrauded, coerced and unable to leave. Whether for labor or sex trafficking, traffickers exploit people seeking better economic opportunities. Yet we are more often exposed to stories of girls who are abducted and kept under lock and key. Relying on a more rare and sensationalized depiction means we're only looking for the daughter in Taken and missing everyone else. Trafficked people need meaningful alternatives to the trafficking and opportunities to rebuild their lives, often before they will trust the police. In fact, trafficked persons are more likely to seek help others outside of law enforcement. With this information, you could be in the position to identify trafficked persons within the restaurants, local businesses, homes and other places in your community.

3. Women and men are enslaved.

Contrary to popular belief, human trafficking is not just an issue affecting women and girls. In fact, 45 percent of all those enslaved are men and boys. Again, if you think it's just women and girls, then you only look for women and girls. Men and boys have been found in sex trafficking and labor trafficking within agriculture, hospitality, restaurants, manufacturing, mining and more.

4. Temporary workers are at risk of trafficking.

Sporting events in general require an increase in labor throughout the host city. Hotels and sporting venues have an increased need for maids and custodial services, food servers, and transportation and delivery. Restaurants require more wait and kitchen staff. Parallel events require a range of additional staffing. This labor increase is typically accomplished with low-wage temporary and contract workers who are largely outside of the protection of labor laws. These workers -- men and women -- are more easily exploited and forced to work.

5. Fans at home -- this affects you too.

Even if you're watching the game at home or the neighborhood bar, slavery touches you too. Slavery is found is many of the goods we purchase and consume on Super Bowl Sunday. Are you planning to wear a team jersey? Commemorative and other team apparel could include cotton harvested by forced labor or sewn in factories by forced labor. Did you buy a new flat-screen television for your Super Bowl party? It may have been assembled with forced labor. Are you watching just for the commercials? That smartphone in your favorite commercial may contain coltan mined with forced labor. Have you planned your menu? The highest number of trafficking victims identified in the United States has been within agriculture. We purchase and use these items almost every day, but the Super Bowl presents them all in one setting.

Since human trafficking is also 78 percent labor trafficking and 45 percent men and boys, that points to different solutions including corporate supply chain policies, factory and farm inspections, and you. Be an informed consumer and community member. Look into the slavery supply chain policies of your favorite brands. Be on the lookout for trafficked persons at the restaurants, local businesses, homes and other places in your community.

Everyone can take action to address human trafficking. In fact, without your participation, we will never effectively shrink the gap between the 42,000 identified last year and the 27 million enslaved today.

The Global Freedom Center offers human trafficking training and consulting to corporations, municipalities, and professionals to improve identification and prevention of human trafficking. Download a free ebook to learn the signs and what you can do about human trafficking. To schedule a consultation or training, contact [e-mail].

 

Follow Kavitha Sreeharsha on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GlblFreedomCtr

Comments

[peg456]

08:35 PM on 02/02/2013

I like this article overall as well as the reply's but I wanted to make a contribution: when we say we need to keep 'those' other sub-populations in mind, too, and not just the sex-work trafficking trade with women, this is a fair statement. Also the statement about doing your research first. But let me add that if we do demographic and geographic research, every region has their own characteristics as far as prevalence's. Also, for a person sitting at home watching TV and reflecting on human-trade this is a whole lot different than taking action in those regions looking for the lost. So whether their perception is 70% versus 40% worldwide, for example, are girls in sex trade is really not relevant unless they are actively searching for them in their town/city, which most don't. This kind of trade in Western countries is very covert whereas in Mumbai it isn't. Anyone wanting to go see for themselves can become part of some reliable organizations and go there. International Justice Missions (IJM) is a good one and they partner with churches. The International Labor Organization (ILO) does have some peer-reviewed articles on-line regarding children and adults in slavery (work including sex-work). But I thank west699 for pointing out about the high salaries and grant mongering some charitable organizations are doing that pay themselves high salaries. That can be across the board and not just in international human trafficking. It's sad and tragic.

[west699]

03:18 PM on 02/02/2013

Sex trafficking is illegal and the pentities are very severe. It is very difficult to force someone to be a sex slave, they would have to have 24 hour guards posted and be watched 365 days a year, 24 hours per day. Have the threat of violence if they refused, and have no one notice and complain to the authorities or police. They would need to hide from the general public yet still manage to see customers from the general public and not have the customers turn the traffickers in to the police. They would need to provide them with medical care, food, shelter, and have all their basic needs met. They would need to have the sex slaves put on a fake front that they enjoyed what they were doing, act flirtatious and do their job well. They would have to deal with the authorities looking for the missing women, and hide any money they may make, since it comes from illegal activity. They must do all of this while constantly trying to prevent the sex slaves from escaping and reporting them to the police. They would need to prevent the general public from reporting them into the police. This is extremely difficult to do, which makes this activity rare.
http://www.lauraagustin.com/debunking-the-40-000-prostitutes-story-again-south-africa-world-cup

[Rebecca Tom]

01:21 AM on 02/04/2013

Maybe some slavers have to do it that way, From the movie "TAKEN" I understood that they might first get them hooked on "DRUGS" which would make them much easier to enslave. They do their job or they do not get their "DRUGS" simple as that. Once an enslaved person has a dependent "DRUG" habit I would think it would be much harder for them to "quit " and get away. not only is their body and mind telling them they NEED MORE DRUGS but emotionally I am quite sure they may feel shame, and perhaps also have little if any positive self esteem left to actually leave. I think eventually they may even feel secure with their en-slavers, and perhaps the life they had stolen from them before their enslavement they may feel would be impossible to return too after what happened to them. Just a thought.....But I will add this, If you are a VICTIM do not let your self believe that you can not leave the life you are leading, everything you do is lining another's pockets, I know you can have a better life else where where you can make healthy choices freely, and never give up HOPE, create goals and then Make your dreams a reality, YOU CAN DO IT. Never let them take your FAITH AWAY

[west699]

03:16 PM on 02/02/2013

The media will say that millions of people are sex slaves without doing any real research on the topic. Only taking the word of special interest anti-prostitution groups which need to generate money in the form of huge government grants from taxpayers, and charities. These “non profit” group’s employees make huge salaries, therefore they need to lobby the government, and inflate and invent victims in order to get more money into their organizations. If you look into how many real kidnapped forced against their will sex slaves there are, and not just take the anti-prostitution groups word for it. You will be very surprised.
Where are all the forced sex slaves? I would like to meet the millions of slaves and see for myself if they were kidnapped and forced against their will.

These groups lobby the government in a big way, getting Politicians to truly believe their lies. This is an attempt to over inflate an issue in order to get more government money to these organizations. As a tax payer, voter, and resident I don’t want the government to mislead me.
http://bebopper76.wordpress.com

[west699]

03:13 PM on 02/02/2013

There is no evidence supporting such sex trafficking claims.

Police and politicians have also issued false sex trafficking statements.
“The Super Bowl is, unfortunately, a major draw for human trafficking,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said during a news conference on the topic at Dallas Police headquarters recently.Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott gave reporters similar warnings in Arlington.
But no one can answer the question, “How do you know?”
since pimps and prostitutes don’t register anywhere. Still, what makes the problem so much worse during the Super Bowl? Similar stories about the sex trade surround almost every major sporting event — even the Olympics and the World Cup.
To investigate their validity, News 8 in Dallas began checking with police departments in other cities that have also hosted the Super Bowl.Phoenix hosted the big game three years ago. Police there told News 8 they received similar warnings about an increase in prostitution and prepared for it, but never uncovered any evidence of a spike in illegal sexual activity.

[west699]

03:06 PM on 02/02/2013

According to the media hype There was supposed to be hundreds of thousands of under age child sex slaves kidnapped and forced to have sex with super bowl fans. At the Dallas Super Bowl 2011 and 2012 in Indiana. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THEM?????

It was all a big lie told by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, government officials, and various anti-prostitution groups: Traffick911, Not for Sale, Change-org, A Future Not A Past, Polaris Project, Salvation Army, Women’s Funding Network, and the Dallas Women’s Foundation, which are anti-prostitution groups that tell lies in order to get grant money from the government and charities to pay their high salaries, and get huge amounts of money into their organizations.

http://bebopper76.wordpress.com/

[madcityy]

10:55 AM on 02/01/2013

THIS IS A GOOD THING TO KEEP IN UR HEAD..............SADLY THE USA IGNORES THIS

PROBLEM....DEPEND THE PRES , TRIES TO STOP THIS

[cgar21]

07:31 AM on 02/01/2013

Thanks for outing the real deal.