Ladies of night chase World Cup score

Some Kiwi ladies are hoping for a different kind of score when the soccer World Cup kicks off this weekend in South Africa.

A sex worker who goes by the working name of Sky told the Herald she and eight others had made their way to South Africa in the hope of making a fortune from soccer fans.

Annah Pickering of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective said that although the organisation did not keep a record of sex workers travelling overseas to work, it was not an unusual practice in the industry.

"Sex work is rather transient, and it is not uncommon for sex workers to travel to large sporting events such as the World Cup."

In South Africa 5.7 million of the 48 million population are HIV positive.

Miss Pickering said the collective promoted the safe sex message to sex workers in New Zealand.

The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (Sweat), which does the same in South Africa, has proposed distributing condoms and lubricants packaged with a football logo during the tournament.

Authorities in South Africa have predicted that up to 40,000 sex workers will greet the 500,000 foreign fans, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

A hotel boss said prostitutes were coming from as far away as China, Venezuela and Pakistan.

The 2006 World Cup in Germany, where prostitution is legal, also brought an influx of 40,000 sex workers.

But human rights activists say many of the women have been trafficked, and are urging hotels to shun the sex trade.

Meanwhile, authorities in major host cities worried about their image are rounding up local prostitutes, vagrants and street children.