The United States is scolding Germany over legalized prostitution that the
United States says could endanger women lured or forced to the host country for
this month's soccer World Cup.
Worldwide, the State Department reported few successes in efforts to slow
what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called a "sordid trade in human
beings." The department said in a report that 12 nations risk sanctions such as
loss of U.S. foreign aid for failing to do enough, or anything at all, to stop
human trafficking.
They do not include Germany, but they include crucial U.S. ally Saudi Arabia,
which failed to improve its standing during last year.
"Human trafficking is an illicit industry of coercion _ subjugating and
exploiting the world's most vulnerable people for profit and personal gain,"
Rice said in releasing the annual accounting of a modern-day slave trade in
prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers.
The United States called Germany a "source, transit and destination country"
for prostitutes and exploited labor.
"The U.S. government opposes prostitution," the State Department report said.
"These activities are inherently harmful and dehumanizing."
Prostitution is legal in Germany, but the report still gave Germany its
highest overall rating for compliance with efforts to stop trafficking, and it
noted German efforts to combat exploitation during the World Cup.
"Nonetheless, due to the sheer size of the event, the potential for increased
human trafficking during the games remains a concern," the report said.
The four-week-long soccer tournament begins Friday.
Ambassador John Miller, head of the State Department's human trafficking
office, said the United States and several European countries are worried about
the potential for an increase in trafficking in Germany during the World Cup.
"I have expressed my concern directly to the German ambassador here," Miller
told reporters.
The German government, while defending its policy of legalized prostitution,
emphatically denies that it condones human trafficking and says it has
intensified efforts to combat it.
The press office at the German Embassy in Washington was closed Monday for a
holiday.
As many as 800,000 people are bought and sold across national borders
annually or lured to other countries with false promises of work or other
benefits, the State Department said in its annual survey of international human
trafficking. Most are women or children.
