Teenage footballers as young as 14 being 'trafficked' to Laos

Millions of people are victims of human trafficking at any given time

Young footballers are allegedly being trafficked to Asia (MARINA PASSOS/AFP/Getty Images)

Underage African footballers, some as young as 14, are reportedly being trafficked to Asia and forced to sign contracts.

Leading Laos team Champasak United imported 23 players from West Africa to train at an unregistered football academy in February, the BBC has claimed.

Such a move goes against Fifa rules banning teams from moving players from foreign clubs and academies until they are 18-years-old.

Culture Foot Solidaire, an NGO which advocates for young players, has estimated that 15,000 teenage footballers are taken out of West Africa each year. Many of these are moved illegally, according to the organisation.

Wleh Bedell, a Liberian journalist who led the group to Laos in February but has now returned, described conditions at the academy as “deplorable and disturbing.” He compared the accommodation with the makeshift buildings people sheltered in during the civil crisis in Liberia.

Bowing to pressure from Fifa and FifPro, the club has released 17 teenagers. However, six minors have reportedly chosen to remain with the team.

A Fifa spokesperson told the BBC: “Fifa is in contact with several member associations in order to gather all information to assess the matter and safeguard the interests of the minors.”

Champasak United, the relatively new club based in the southern city of Pakse, told the BBC that it denies any wrongdoing.

Former Liberia international Alex Karmo invited the youngsters to join the IDSEA Champasak Asia African Football Academy when he captained the club.

Club president Phonesavanh Khieulavong told the BBC that the teenagers aren’t given professional contracts, but they receive bonuses.

Neither Khieulavong nor Karmo denied there were underage players at the academy, but said there was one 16-year-old Ghanaian boy at the academy.

The UN defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation.

A 2012 study by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime predicted that 2.4million people are victims of human trafficking at any one time. 80 per cent of those people are exploited as sexual slaves.