europe9

Czech Republic/Germany: UNICEF Stirs Controversy With Claims Of Widespread Child
Prostitution At Border
By Kathleen KnoxThe UN Children's Fund says the Czech-German border area is
becoming a "marketplace" for child prostitution. In the report, released in Berlin, UNICEF
says children as young as infants are being coerced into prostitution, often by their parents
or other relatives.Prague, 29 October 2003 (RFE/RL) -- For 12-year-old Karel, it was
poverty that drove him into prostitution. "Before, I used to beg from the Germans in their
cars. We have no money at home," he told social workers. "Then I just drove away with
them."Karel is just one of a growing number of boys and girls living off prostitution in the
Czech-German border area, according to a report released yesterday by the UN
International Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) and Ecpat, an international children's
rights organization. The authors say the border area has become a "marketplace" for child
prostitution. They said they have observed some 500 boys and girls taking part in
prostitution since they began their research in 1996. Helga Kuhn, a UNICEF spokeswoman,
said: "The situation is getting worse. The [study] found that since 1996 a marketplace for
prostitution has been established, and it has grown to an extent which is worse than five
years ago." For the report, researchers spoke to children, as well as adult prostitutes,
social workers, and police. They found that some of the children come from poor Czech or
Slovak families. Often they are the victims of sex abuse at home -- or are the children of
prostitutes. As one 10-year-old girl said, "My mom told me how I have to do it."Others are
trafficked by organized gangs of pimps from countries farther east like Moldova, Ukraine,
Lithuania, and Russia. Beatings or torture are common.Typically, the authors say, their
clients are German pedophiles or sex tourists traveling the short distance across the
border. But there are also cars from Austria or Italy.Increasingly, these sex tourists have
been asking specifically for children -- some say because they're less likely to catch
HIV/AIDS from them. That, plus the overall increase in the sex industry in the area, may
explain the flourishing trade, the authors say. The children typically hang out near gas
stations, bus stops, or restaurants in border towns or along the highways that straddle the
border. Older children approach the men themselves, apparently begging for food or
money. Sometimes they sell themselves for a few euros -- other times they only get candy.
The report says women have even been seen holding small children in their arms and
offering them to sex tourists in cars. "The youngest children are really babies who are
offered for prostitution, sometimes, in the streets," Kuhn said. "This is more of an
exception. Most of the children are between 9 and 14 years old." The report has the
support of Christian Rau, UNICEF's patron in Germany and the wife of German President
Johannes Rau. She said it is "appalling how children in our close neighborhood are
unscrupulously exploited." She urged authorities to do more to protect them.But the
authorities in the Czech Republic -- where the report made headlines -- are dismissing the
findings. Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla called the report "unrealistic." Interior Minister
Stanislav Gross said his department will study it. But he said a previous similar report
turned out to be groundless. A more junior Interior Ministry official, Jitka Gjuricova, went
further, saying the report is "untrue" and was prompted by nongovernmental organizations
trying to raise funds.Interior Ministry spokesman Marie Masarikova was more diplomatic.
She referred to a nationwide sweep earlier this month against forced prostitution, where
police made several arrests -- but which uncovered no cases of child prostitution. "Neither
the Czech Interior Ministry nor the police have any evidence to suggest that child
prostitution is widespread in the Czech Republic," she said. "Not even a recent police
sweep on a large number of brothels in the Czech Republic confirmed this." UNICEF's Kuhn
said they may have simply been looking in the wrong places. "That may be one important
reason, that they're looking in the wrong places, because what the street workers
[observed] is that child prostitution doesn't take place mainly in the brothels, but in the
streets or private apartments," she said. But Masarikova of the Czech Interior Ministry
insists the report does not paint an accurate picture: "Nonetheless, we still insist that the
police have no evidence that child prostitution is as widespread as the report says." The
report says authorities on both sides of the border have to take the problem much more
seriously and cooperate more to bring offenders to justice.Right now, the authors say,
children are often treated as criminals or illegal migrants instead of as victims. Or they're
told simply to get off the street. What they need, Kuhn said., is support and care to allow
them to do that -- and to give evidence against the offenders. She said a group of social
workers is now trying to raise funds for a children's shelter near the border area.