The 2010 football World Cup will heighten the risk of human trafficking in South Africa where a new study out yesterday urged greater action against the crime.

"It's a strong surmise that this problem will become worse in the host cities during the month of the Cup," Virginia Tilley of the Human Sciences Research Council, which published the research, said.

"This is a natural magnet for traffickers because they figure they can make some good profits. The demand for sex and and drugs really crest during these events on a large scale."

The exploratory study, commissioned by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), called for "intervention on all fronts" into the crime.

It found that South Africa is a destination and transit country for trafficking in persons from the world and Africa, while domestic trafficking was mainly from rural to urban areas.

Women were the biggest group of victims with a demand for under-age girls "a disturbing feature" fuelled by perceptions that they were less of an HIV risk and represented "youthful sexual desirability".

South Africa's main World Cup host cities Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth were believed to be main destinations for underage sex tourism involving children aged 10 to 14 years.

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