Protecting children and young athletes from trafficking

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is backing a new campaign by Mission 89 to stop child trafficking in sport. Mission 89 campaigns against the exploitation of young athletes, exposing how traffickers use the dream of stardom to deceive and abuse children.

“Sport should be a source of joy and achievement, not a gateway to exploitation,” states Ugochi Daniels, IOM Deputy Director General.

“The line we don’t cross”

The campaign, The Line We Don’t Cross – The United Declaration on the Elimination of Child Exploitation in Sport, responds to a growing global trend. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports that children make up 38% of trafficking victims worldwide. Many are targeted through fake offers to join sports academies or sign contracts. Instead of finding opportunity, they face forced labor, abuse, or abandonment.

According to Daniels, “traffickers prey on the ambitions of young athletes, using false promises to lure them into abuse and deception.”

This is evident in a recent case in which Nigerian police released 76 Ghanaian men lured by promises of football contracts and jobs abroad. The men were trapped in overcrowded rooms with poor conditions. Traffickers seized their travel documents and phones. Then, traffickers forced the men to call their families to extort money under the guise of training fees. The traffickers even used the survivors’ contact lists to scam their friends and relatives.

Traffickers leverage weak safeguarding systems and unethical recruitment practices to target individuals, often from disadvantaged backgrounds. Daniels emphasizes, “through this campaign, we aim to strengthen protection measures, integrate safeguards into recruitment systems, and ensure that children are safe on and off the field.”

Targeting the systems to prevent trafficking

In discussing the approach of the campaign, Lerina Bright, Founder of Mission 89, states:

While we continue to celebrate the power of sport, we cannot ignore the risks faced by young athletes. This campaign is about ensuring that every child who dreams through sport is safe, supported, and never exploited.

Mission 89’s campaign takes a preventative approach. It calls on sports bodies, governments, and regional organizations to embed child safeguarding into their rules. It offers training, educational resources, and prevention guides to help identify risks early. The campaign also invites sports federations, clubs, agents, policymakers, and sponsors to sign an integrity pledge against trafficking in sport.

Importantly, the campaign advocates for ethical, safe, and rights-based migration routes. It specifically calls for platforms that youth use to promote safe migration for young people. Freedom United backs the promotion of safe migration to prevent human trafficking. We also commend and support the preventative, systemic strategies employed by IOM and Mission 89, which focus on tackling the root causes that render individuals vulnerable to exploitation.