Ending Child Trafficking: Keeping Sports Safe for Youth

Young athletes in places like Yemen (pictured) can be trafficked by criminal networks.

Saido, a Somali refugee, started playing basketball when she entered the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. For her, basketball was a way to gain community and confidence.

“Sports give me a sense of belonging as a girl. When I play, it affirms my right to participate and exposes me to wider opportunities,” she said.

This is what sport should represent for young people worldwide. However, a new campaign supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) seeks to counter a darker side of the multi-billion-dollar industry – by ending child trafficking through sports.

“Sport should be a source of joy and achievement, not a gateway to exploitation. Yet traffickers prey on the ambitions of young athletes, using false promises to lure them into abuse and deception,” said Ugochi Daniels, the IOM Deputy Director General for Operations.

Of the approximately 50 million people worldwide who are subjected to trafficking-related abuses, 38 per cent are children. Of these child victims, 11 per cent are trafficked through false promises.

In the sports industry, this exploitation takes many forms, including joining fake sports academies or signing what appear to be professional contracts.

For many young people like Saido, sport can be a pathway out of disadvantaged backgrounds. Saido dreams of seeing more Somali and refugee women playing in international professional leagues.

“I want to see a basketball academy full of Somali girls and other girls from different communities here in Kakuma. I want to see Somali girls playing basketball at the WNBA level,” she said, referencing the top women’s league in the United States.

But these dreams, coupled with disadvantaged backgrounds, can also make them uniquely vulnerable to traffickers’ false promises.

Working alongside Mission 89 – an organisation that fights young athlete exploitation – IOM is calling on stakeholders within the $1.2 trillion sports industry to strengthen protection mechanisms.

This includes reforming unethical recruitment strategies that can be exploited by traffickers and providing education to the entire industry about the harms and risks of trafficking.

In addition, the campaign urges industry leaders to sign commitments declaring zero tolerance for the scourge.

“While we continue to celebrate the power of sport, we cannot ignore the risks faced by young athletes,” said Lerina Bright, the founder and executive director of Mission 89.

“This campaign is about ensuring that every child who dreams through sport is safe, supported, and never exploited.”