Jamaica’s global athletic fame is at risk of being exploited through the emerging trend of sports trafficking.
That’s according to Children’s Advocate and National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Diahann Gordon Harrison.
She made the comment at a forum on human trafficking in Hanover on Thursday.
Sports trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring or receiving an athlete or aspiring athlete within or across borders, through coercive, deceptive or abusive means for the purpose of exploitation.
The forum highlighted a 2024 study on exploitation in the world of sports.
The data revealed hundreds of cases where traffickers pose as agents to lure young, aspiring victims.
Pointing to a 2017 court case, Mrs Gordon Harrison revealed that sports trafficking is already becoming a problem in Jamaica.
A confessed fake football coach was sentenced to two years after he tricked two boys into street begging under the notion the money would be used for equipment.
Mrs Gordon Harrison says there may need to be an amendment to the legislation to address the growing threat.
Diahann Gordon Harrison, Children’s Advocate and National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons.
English (US) ·