The Olympic Games are a globally respected and eagerly anticipated event of the year. Watching, for several days, fair-play play and sporting competition even among nations that for the rest of the year do not maintain peaceful attitudes toward one another is a unique experience. But apart from the positive impact (in the form of cultural encounters within one metropolis), this event can also have a negative impact for Slovak men and women — in the form of human trafficking.

The Summer Olympic Games (OG) in London this year will undoubtedly be an exceptional event with many positive aspects. The public will admire the results of the years of purposeful, long-term work by top athletes. National teams, composed of different nationalities, will together compete for victory on behalf of their home country. Yet even places where people from very different corners of the world and cultures meet are not immune from negative influences — the risks of false recruitment associated with human trafficking.

SKCH social workers and coordinators of the “STOP obchodovaniu s ľuďmi” project under the leadership of Andrea Bezáková point out that in such recruitment, this is about “false job offers from agencies that offer employment or study. Then the classic model of trafficking begins: traffickers take victims’ documents under various pretexts, followed by blackmail and manipulation, then psychological and physical abuse, up to restricting personal freedom — the victim has no chance to escape.”

The London OG organising team, in preparing for the event (and following the positive experiences of other hosts of world sports competitions with preventive campaigns in recent years), also focused on combating trafficking. Preventive campaigns and concrete steps by the British government (as well as all participating organisations) will play an important role in preventing human trafficking. The project “STOP obchodovaniu s ľuďmi” was launched four years ago in Slovakia by Slovak Catholic charity (SKCH), following the model of the Magdala project in Czech Catholic charity and with support from the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic. The basic pillars of the program are prevention, outreach, and reintegration of people who became victims of such trafficking.

Preventive campaigns during the Olympics in the streets of London

SKCH workers seek to draw the Slovak public’s attention to the British campaign “Stop the traffik” — aimed at Olympic visitors. It is the ‘GIFT box’ project — an installation of large boxes in the streets of London that, by their outer packaging, will attract and promise attractive contents, but once inside, they reveal the harsh reality experienced by people deceived by modern enslavers. This is exactly how the mechanism of human trafficking works, where, with a nice exterior (for example, an appealing summer job abroad), it is hard to predict in advance unfair intentions of people offering these opportunities. Moreover, in times of economic crisis, people may more quickly accept such an offer of well-paid work beyond the borders.

The goal of these preventive campaigns in the streets of London (which the public can view at www.stopthetraffik.org, www.ungiftbox.org) is not to frighten potential Olympic visitors, nor to devalue the significance of the global sporting event that awaits us at the end of July and beginning of August. SKCH general secretary Radovan Gumulák notes that it will be important “at a place where an enormous mix of nationalities and cultures will meet daily — to reach as many people as possible and draw attention to a reality we often do not perceive because we do not know about it. Sufficient information and prevention can make traveling easier for people and, for example, warn them against negative experiences when searching for work outside the Slovak Republic.”

Before leaving for work abroad

Top gymnast Samuel Piasecký is also preparing to attend the Olympics this summer — Slovakia will be represented in artistic gymnastics in London. The Slovak representative advises young people from Slovakia who, thanks to cheap flights, may travel there for the first time this summer to follow the Olympics in Great Britain to “thoroughly prepare before traveling, verify everything about offers of temporary work or study stays abroad, and not travel alone.” Globally, millions of people are trafficked every year. Exact statistics concerning Slovakia are listed on the website of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic (http://www.minv.sk).

Each year, several dozen victims enter the MV SR Program, with the largest number of trafficking victims coming from eastern Slovakia, where unemployment is highest and people leave for work abroad. London is a target destination for many Slovak residents throughout the year, but their number will rise further during the Olympic Games. By means of prevention and education, one may try to reduce the risk of exploitation associated with such a significant event as the Olympics undoubtedly are.

Text: Božena Baluchová, Photo: Michal Fulier Within Slovenska katolícka charita, the STOP obchodovaniu s ľuďmi project has been running since 2008 and consists mainly of prevention, outreach, and reintegration of clients who have become victims of trafficking. You can find more about this SKCH project here: http://charita.sk/stranky/pomoc-obetiam-obchodovania-s-ludmi