Child Exploitation.org
South America
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Brief evaluation of the trafficking and prostitution situation in Latin American and the
Caribbean
In order to evaluate, briefly and objectively, the situation regarding prostitution and
trafficking in women in Latin America and the Caribbean, we must consider the
commitments agreed to by the different governments and the international community at
the Copenhagen Summit as well as at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women.
Then we must establish which commitments have been met, and come up with some
conclusions regarding the quality of life for women and girls within the region.
Regarding sexual exploitation and its implications, the first indicator that must be
considered is the Total Foreign Debt. As the commonality affecting most countries, this
factor is the main link between poverty and women’s situation. Governments' political good
will indicators show that this situation has not changed. The number of women heads of
household is more visible and is increasing. Full employment is not a priority in economic
and social policies; thus free choices for a secure life style for women are restricted. We
are finding ever-increasing numbers of women and girls in prostitution as a way to survive.
Unemployment rates increase very fast. There are no social welfare plans or alternatives to
discourage migration from the rural areas.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies and the impact of global economy
measures have benefited the sex industry. Privatization and tourism development ensure
that those countries looking for development will also find sex tourism, along with the
exploitation of natural resources and the loss of national sovereignty.
Regarding the Action Plan agreed on the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, no
country has met objective No. 4 Violence against Women: "to eliminate the trafficking in
women, and to give assistance to women victims of prostitution and trafficking." Tabloids
quite often report how the police regularly and brutally raid brothels, bars, and nightclubs
and detain women who are being sexually exploited. There is no respect, promotion or
protection of women’s human rights, on the contrary the same law and order enforcement
officers violate these rights. There is no protection for the women and children victims of
exploitation, trafficking and child prostitution. Otherwise, international networks involved in
these practices would not gain ground. The number of cases of women and children victims
of such crimes has continued to increase, including sex tourism and pornography within
South America, and also in other world regions. The most talked about pornography
scandal recently is the Paris incident in which Colombian children were used in the making
of pornography videos.
In Brazil, the problem is similar to that of Central America in that, except for local
prostitution rings in the northeast of the country and the Amazon, most of the selling occurs
in popular beach destinations. Mr. Enriques of the Brazilian Embassy stated that, while
there is no official data to confirm these occurrences, most of the international connection
with the child prostitution industry occurs with organized trips by European tour operators
to popular destinations such as Recife and Fortaleza. There is also evidence that
prostitution rackets in Brazil range from highway truck stops in the Amazon to the beaches
of Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Enriques further stated that the Brazilian government is taking action
to diminish this problem by educating the public on the subject and providing toll-free
numbers to call and report this type of occurrence. The Brazilian government?s agenda is
currently much more focused on keeping children out of the streets than on the sex tourism
industry per se.43 Brazil?s Child Protection Law has not only served as a model to other
Latin American countries but it has also enabled the government to reduce the number of
minors in the workforce from 4 million in 1997 to 2.9 million today. However, increasing
international awareness on the subject of child prostitution in Brazil has finally brought
forward a program that specifically addresses this issue. President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso recently approved Brazil?s first-ever US$3 million program to combat child
prostitution and the growing sex-tourism industry
OVERVIEW OF THE PROBLEM IN LATIN AMERICA
The problem of trafficking of women has reached global proportions in recent years. A
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report states that two million women and children from
Asia, the former USSR and Latin America, are tricked each year by traffickers who offer
them jobs abroad.6 The same report states that of those two million women and children
about 50,000 per year are brought to the U.S. for prostitution. While most of these
individuals come from Asia and Eastern Europe, about 10,000 originate from Latin America
each year.7 But this figure hardly reflects the reality of what is happening today in Latin
America. For example, it is estimated that about forty million children are being prostituted
in Latin America as a result of poor economic conditions.8 The sex-tourism industry is
booming in the region due to increased poverty and lack of regulation and control
measures. In Nicaragua, a government study conducted in 1999 stated that 82% of
children who prostituted themselves had done so within the last year.9 In addition, 47% of
these children had chosen this path out of economic necessity and 96% engaged in
prostitution to sustain their drug dependency (50% are dependent on glue).10 These
figures are quite representative of the general scenario in Central America. Further, in
Guatemala, the local police estimates that about 2,000 girls and boys are being sexually
exploited in 600 brothels in the capital alone.11 Costa Rica, which is currently Central
America?s leading tourist destination with one million foreign visitors in 1999, is believed to
have the biggest child prostitution problem in the region.12 While there are no statistics
that show the number of men that travel to Costa Rica for sex with young prostitutes, local
authorities estimate them to be about 5,000 each year.13 Moreover, the National Institute
for children estimates that about 3,000 children14 are involved in prostitution in the
country?s capital. Children are not only prostituted but also sold for adoption. According to
the United Nations Children?s Fund (Unicef), illegal adoptions from third world countries
are also on the rise with Guatemala currently being the main Latin American provider of
babies to Western nations.15
Dominican Republic
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women participated in all the sessions of the "First
Dominican Congress of Women in Prostitution or Sex Workers" held in Santo Domingo in
May 1995. It was responsible for considerable political/ideological discussion regarding the
term "sex worker". The Centre for Orientation and Comprehensive Research (Centro de
Orientacion y Investigacion Integral-COIN), who organized the event, chose the Congress’s
name and confirmed the participation of two of the most controversial personalities in Latin
America and the Caribbean: Gabriela Leite, Brazil, from the National Association of Women
Prostitutes (who did not participate at the last moment), and Economist Zoraida Ramirez
Rodriguez, Venezuela from the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. The Dominica
women in prostitution attending this event, whether they were residents of this country or
not, decided to give careful consideration to the terms "sex worker" and "woman in
prostitution" before adopting one of them.
The largest number of sexually exploited women from Latin America comes from the
Dominican Republic. These women are vital to the sex industry. This is the reason why this
process of reflection around the term "sex worker" had such relevancy.
Female Prostitution in Latin America
In Mexico, a number of girls as young as fourteen were promised jobs in
housekeeping/child care but when they arrived to the U.S., they were told they had to work
in brothels serving migrant workers.46 Today, it is not uncommon to hear of Mexican
women being trafficked to Florida to sexually serve migrant workers. Further, while most of
the trafficking from Central American women appears to be headed for the U.S., as
evidenced by Mexican women who work as prostitutes, maids or housekeepers, South
American women sometimes head towards the U.S. but appear to be heading more often
towards Europe. Mr. Cortes from the INS pointed out in an interview that Colombian and
Brazilian women are often sexually exploited in Europe.47 Further, Mr. Enriques confirmed
this fact by stating that there is a regular movement of women between Brazil and Spain.
He does not believe that this flow constitutes a significant industry yet, but believes that it is
the result of a basic economic reality for these women since they can earn thousands of
dollars a month prostituting themselves in Spain compared to a few hundred dollars in
Brazil. Mr. Enriques pointed out that in the past, poor economic conditions had also driven
Brazilian women of Japanese descent to migrate to Japan. In fact, in the early nineties,
about 200,000 young Brazilian women of Japanese descent, between the ages of eighteen
to twenty-nine, had moved to Japan to find better jobs. Some of these women intended to
work as hostesses but ended up working as prostitutes, thereby evidencing a transnational
connection between prostitution rings in Brazil and Japan.
However, as of today, Brazil constitutes the second supplier of female prostitutes to the
world. A recent UN (United Nations) study pointed out that about 75,000 Brazilian women
currently work as prostitutes in Europe.48 Out of these 75,000 women 95%49 are
estimated to be living as slaves. During November 2000, the United Nations Office of Drug
Control and Crime Prevention signed an agreement with the Brazilian government whereby
the Brazilian government commits to fight the trafficking of women and children in Brazil and
around the world. The main recipient countries for Brazilian female prostitution are:
Portugal, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, France, Canada and Israel. Portugal and Spain
are obvious destination choices because of language affinity. In Portugal, a UN report50
stated that 60% of the prostitutes are from Latin America, mostly from Brazil. In Spain for
example, Brazilian prostitutes work primarily in cosmopolitan cities such as Seville,
Barcelona and Madrid. The Spanish government is concerned about the increase in
Brazilian prostitutes and is developing legislation to deport illegal aliens. Another important
recipient country outside of Europe is Surinam. In Brazil, the critical area of recruiting for
prostitutes is in the north of the country. The Interpol has been actively involved in the
prevention and detection of trafficking routes used by Brazilian women. At present, the
Brazilian government?s schedule includes programs to train the police and judges that
work in border regions.
Chile
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, along with other Chilean NGOs, strongly
denounced the exclusion of problems affecting female children and women, such as sexual
exploitation and violence, from the Fourth Meeting of the Latin American Human Rights
Inter-Parliamentarian Commission, which met in Chile in May 1996. These demonstrations
constitute an important political-ideological achievement since members of the Parliaments
in the different countries of the region make up the commission, and are the same people
in charge of legislating. Therefore, it is so important to stress upon them the need to use
the tools, which guarantee women and female children their Human Rights.
In Chile, as well as in other countries, some groups and individuals acknowledge and try to
justify prostitution as work. The painful years people suffered under General Pinochet’s
dictatorship have not helped for a better understanding of the meaning of the human rights
violation of citizens within a political and civil rights context.
Another form of trafficking of women is managed by the mail order bride industry. Women
are advertised in local papers, magazines, catalogs and the Internet. With over two
hundred mail order bride agencies in the U.S. in 1998, each one serving more than one
thousand men per month paying $200 for each woman25, this industry?s importance
needs to be recognized. The number of agencies that deal with Latin American women has
also proportionally increased with twenty agencies out of a total of 153 in March 1998
compared to twenty-four agencies out of a total of 202 in May 1998.26 This type of service
can often lead to fraud or abuse because many of these women are willing to take risks just
to obtain U.S. residency.
Latin American trafficking has differences and similarities with trafficking in other areas of
the world. For example, some peculiarities can be pointed out among trafficking in Asia,
Europe and Latin America. In Asia, children are sold to trade by families and friends, or
sold as servants. Some of these children do not know that they are being sold and others
are even kidnapped from their homes. Quite often these children are trafficked across
borders or from rural areas to urban areas. In Europe, trafficking is more consistently done
from poor countries to wealthier countries, where they are marketed to organized pedophile
rings and high-tech information services. In Latin America, children usually are already
working in the streets and ultimately choose or are forced to enter the sex trade because
they are economically vulnerable. The children believe they will benefit from protection
from their pimps, but end up being controlled and abused by them.
However, many similarities can be found in the organization and operation of trafficking
networks across borders. Ms. O?Neil?s study points out that Latin American trafficking
appears to operate similarly to Asian trafficking, as they use independent contractors to
move victims across the border using the same routes27 as alien smugglers.28 These
groups are usually controlled by other Latino Americans who only deal with Latin women in
brothels. The underlying abusive aspect of recruiting is also quite similar around the world.
For instance, one of the basic premises of human trafficking, as well as other forms of
organized crime, is that it feeds on and exploits human suffering and poverty caused by
poor economic conditions and/or regional conflicts.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SLAVERY: THE HUMAN COST
Most women who engage in prostitution do so through family, friends or through newspaper
or Internet ads that promise jobs as secretaries, salesperson, waitresses and other jobs.
However, these women soon find out that these jobs do not exist. They are subsequently
taken prisoners and forced into prostitution or other forms of servitude in order to pay off
the debts that they have incurred in order to get to their destination. Quite often they are
sold to brothels for profit and cannot fight for themselves because they are illegal in the
country and lack freedom of action. This type of criminal activity has proven to be quite
profitable. According to Amy O?Neil Richard in ?International Trafficking in Women to the
United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime,? a report
written in 1999 for the Center for the Study of Intelligence, in recent cases traffickers have
made US$1 million to US$8 million over a one- to six-year period.21 Further, she states
that in Latin America, profitability is just as lucrative as in other parts of the world. She
cites the example of a Mexican crime family that forced deaf Mexicans to peddle trinkets,
making an astonishing US$8 million in four and a half years. Other Mexicans made US$2.5
million in two and a half years by forcing women into prostitution, with an average client
paying US$22 per 15 minutes.22 Moreover, the United Nations Office of Drug Control and
Crime Prevention states that trafficking of human cargo currently represents a US$5 to
US$7 billion industry.23
The opportunity for such lucrative business has kept criminal networks very much involved
in trafficking, which enables them to capitalize on this form of human slavery. Trafficking,
as opposed to alien smuggling,24 which is structured around short-term profits, relies on
long-term exploitation for monetary gain. The victims, which have invested a significant
amount of money to reach their destination and get set up, have to repay the traffickers
over time, thereby creating a owner-slave type relationship. As a result, they are already
indebted before they find out that the jobs that were promised to them never existed.
Sometimes, girls are talked into marriage under false pretenses and end up being sold as
prostitutes. Usually they are first approached by a friend or sister who is already in the
destination country.
While much attention has been paid to trafficking in drugs and smuggling of illegal aliens,
trafficking of women and children for slavery purposes still remains an issue with which the
average citizen is less familiar. The fact is that trafficking of women has accelerated over
the last ten years, as Dona Hughes, director of Women Studies Program at the university
of Rhode Island, points out.1 Moreover, human trafficking is the third most profitable
criminal activity in the world after drugs and arms trafficking, bringing in about US$7 billion
in profits every year.2 Globalization has posed new economic and social challenges for
women who have become more vulnerable to the inequities of the world. This vulnerability
has, in turn, increased migration of women around the world in the hope of finding work to
sustain themselves and their families. This economic necessity has placed women at
greater risk of being the target of transnational organized crime, given that the latter
usually feeds on human misery and economic crisis. Children, especially street children
who have been subjected to abuse, have also become victims since they fall to the same
type of predators. The result has been an increase in prostitution and other slave-like
conditions for women and children in search of work.
In Central America, a lot of attention is being placed on children whether it involves
smuggling for illegal adoption or child prostitution. For instance, a recent illegal adoption
ring in Mexico and other countries in Central America, has been documented as having
smuggled seventeen babies across borders for US$22,000 each.32 In El Salvador the
police arrested the leader of a criminal organization specialized in smuggling children to the
U.S.33 On the child prostitution front Central America, specifically Guatemala, El Salvador,
Costa Rica and Nicaragua, has successfully marketed its beaches, which have attracted an
increasing number of men who are looking to have sex with children. Most of these men
come from North America, Europe and Latin America. While there are no hard statistics
that clearly quantify the situation in Central America, local surveys show that the problem is
on the increase. For instance, in Nicaragua a recent Unicef report showed an increase in
prostitution among children that are between the ages of twelve and sixteen.34 Further,
during 1999, the International Police (Interpol) discovered a prostitution network of young
girls from Central America working in bars along the Guatemala-El Salvador border.35 In
Guatemala, where 5.7 million people are under the age of eighteen (52% of the
population), 80% live below poverty levels.36 Street children are used by networks of child
pornographers to film movies in hotels. These networks later sell the movies on the
international pedophile markets. Further, the Interpol has rescued over twenty Salvadoran
girls in prostitution rings over the past three years. Also, in Honduras the police arrested
an Australian pedophile with ninety-four cases against him in Australia.37 In Honduras,
organized crime rings traffic girls, which are between the age of thirteen and fourteen, to
brothels in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. Another case involved one hundred
Honduran children, who were smuggled to Canada and handed to a drug ring, which sent
the kids to Vancouver to be placed in streets to sell drugs.
Abuses Against Street Children
In August 1993, to cite one example, the Special Rapporteur communicated with the
Brazilian Government concerning allegations of the exploitation and abuse of street
children by law-enforcement officials. The officials were alleged to have killed eight street
children and injured others in Rio de Janeiro in July 1993. The allegation followed a long
list of others noted in the Special Rapporteur's report on Brazil submitted to the
Commission on Human Rights in 1992.The Brazilian Government responded by
acknowledging the charge. "As pointed out in your communication, this incident is not an
isolated case", the Government said in its response. "The Brazilian Government is well
aware that the killings of street children are not a new phenomenon and that certain
elements of the policy may be implicated in the actions of 'death' squads". Three policemen
and a fourth man were in prison awaiting trial for murder, and the commander of the Fifth
Police Corps in Rio de Janeiro, to whom the three policemen were subordinated, was
dismissed from his post.Non-governmental organizations have played an important role in
pressuring Governments to respect both international law and in many cases similar laws in
their own countries, particularly when it is clear that they have been partly or largely
responsible for violations of those laws. Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental human
rights organization with offices in Europe and the United States, has investigated numerous
allegations. These include trafficking of women and girls from Nepal into India for use as
prostitutes; the conditions of bonded labourers in Pakistan, many of whom are children;
and the improper detention of juveniles by the criminal-justice system in Jamaica. Human
Rights Watch recently released reports on India and Pakistan in mid-1995 that were highly
critical of Government complicity. In the United States, new tools for fighting sexual abuse
of children overseas and international child pornography have been incorporated into the
Mann Act, a 1910 Act of Congress originally aimed at prohibiting the interstate
transportation of women "for immoral purposes".
In Brazil, maid jobs are close to slavery-women are generally expected to live at the
household of their employer at least six days a week and to work whenever needed during
that entire time. For this they are paid about forty dollars a month. Rape of maids is
common. Maids are not allowed to take their children to work, and they cannot afford other
accommodation, so children are generally left alone in a room of a neighbor (where they
are often abused, raped, and go hungry) or they live on the streets.
These children, trapped in a closed cycle, form the next generation of Brazil’s poor. Young
women often become pregnant at eleven or twelve. Since abortion is illegal in Brazil, young
women often die as a result of illegal abortions.
Race and Gender in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Salvador is a city of three million people, of whom 80% are African-Brazilian, nearly all living
in the material misery of shantytowns. Throughout Brazil, African-Brazilian women 75% less
money than white Brazilian men for the same work; 67% of African-Brazilian women work as
domestic servants. The shantytowns themselves are vast ‘invasions’ (the local term) of self-
constructed shacks along open sewers, infested with rats and cockroaches. Tuberculosis
and other diseases are endemic. Drugs, and now small arms sales, are major economies.
Brazil has one of the highest homicide rates by non-military gunfire in the world.
What about the authorities?
Ironically, street children are often at greatest risk of violence from those that are
responsible to protect them – the police and other authorities. Police often beat,
harass, sexually assault and even torture street children. They may beat children for
their money or demand payment for protection, to avoid false charges, or for
release from custody. They may seek out girls to demand sex. For many street
children,assaults and thefts by the police are a routine part of their lives. Some are
even killed by police. Very rarely are those responsible brought to justice.
Nobody knows. Street children are not easy to count because: they move around a
lot, within and between cities; they are often excluded from ‘statistic-friendly’
infrastructures (schools, households etc.); definitions of ‘street children’ are vague
and differing. Numbers of 'street children' have often been deliberately exaggerated
and misquoted in order to sensationalise and victimise these children. Street
children have the right to be accurately represented. City-level surveys conducted by
local organizations and supported by a clear definition are more reliable. In many
countries, there is anecdotal evidence that numbers are increasing, due to
uncontrolled urbanisation (linked to poverty), conflict and children being orphaned
by AIDS. Most statistics are just estimates e.g. Kenya: 250,000; Ethiopia: 150,000;
Zimbabwe: 12,000; Bangladesh: 445,226; Nepal: 30,000; India: 11 million (these
are based on broad definitions of ‘street children’). Regardless of the statistics,
even one child on the streets is too many if their rights are being violated.
Street Kids’ Locked Up
Street children in Honduras are being locked in shelters as the nation fights crime,
begging and gangs. Faced with chronic poverty and a soaring crime rate, the
Honduran government last spring began a sweep of street children, removing them
to government-sponsored centers. The centers, authorities say, offer the children a
future by providing them with counseling and referrals to agencies. As of
September, more than 1,000 children had been picked up and sheltered for varying
lengths of stays in one of four centers in the country. Each center has room for 150
children, and all are full, according to Lesbia Lagos, director of Hogares de
Proteccion Kennedy.
Children - some as young as 6 - are taken to the centers by teams of police and
social workers if they are seen begging, prostituting themselves or just walking the
streets alone at night. Lagos said children who have families are returned home
only if their parents have an income and the children attend school. Otherwise they
are referred to nongovernmental organizations that work with children. But many of
these agencies won't accept the referrals, and the children stay much longer,
possibly years, until they turn 18 and are considered adults.
The roundups reflect the tremendous social problems in one of the poorest and
youngest democracies in the Western Hemisphere. In Honduras, half the population
of 6.5 million is under 18. The average monthly income is about $65, and the
unemployment rate hovers at 28 percent. There are no reliable estimates as to the
numbers of street children in Honduras. They are believed by government officials
and advocates alike to be in the thousands.
The sweeps come at a time when police are arresting hundreds of teenagers and
young adults in a crackdown on gangs. Membership in gangs is now considered an
"illicit association," which carries a sentence of up to seven years in jail. The law is
a response to an increase of violent crime over the past decade by young gangs
that have carved up major cities into their turf.
Business owners support the crackdown. "Street children used to be all over
downtown," said Gina Burgos, 48, general manager of the Medieval Bar and
Restaurant. "You couldn't go anywhere without them following you, coming into
businesses asking for money, grabbing you. It's better now but a little strange.
Where have they gone? They just disappeared from downtown."
An ILO study on the worst forms of child labour in Jamaica has unearthed a
disturbing practice of widespread prostitution by children, some as young as 10
years old, in six of the island's 14 parishes. While the study did not state definitively
how many children were involved in prostitution, the researchers said they consulted
269 persons, 129 of whom were children. The remainders, 140, were adult
stakeholders. Of the children categorized as being involved in formal prostitution,
the majority were girls, but boys, primarily in homosexual relationships, were also
identified. The researchers recommended that the government strengthen a 1999
child care and protection bill to classify as a criminal offence, the use of children in
prostitution. They also suggested the formation of national machinery to work in
collaboration with a child labour elimination programme. (Jamaica Observer)
PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic -- On this Caribbean country's white
beaches, teenage and child prostitutes wearing next to nothing troll the resort areas,
frolicking near groups of foreign tourists to lure their attention away from the
emerald seas. Poorly educated and immersed in poverty, they offer themselves for
pennies - a desperate act that activists say is helping spread the AIDS virus in the
country. "I do it for the money," said a lanky 16-year-old boy who gave his name as
Eduardo. "I don't need to get tested because I know I'm not sick." Like dozens of
others, he walks the Puerto Plata beachfront, 100 miles northwest of the capital
Santo Domingo, shining shoes and occasionally selling himself to the highest
bidder. At least 35,000 Dominican youths under 19 have turned to prostitution for
survival, and as many as 15 percent of them could be HIV positive, according to
Mais, a Dominican non-governmental organization working to end child prostitution
in the Spanish-speaking country. The Dominican government estimates that at least
130,000 Dominicans have HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, and more than 52,000
have died from the disease since 1985. Unlike adult prostitutes who often work at
nightclubs and are required to be tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases, child prostitutes are largely unregulated. "I always use a condom, but
many don't and I know of many who have (AIDS)," says 17-year-old Jose Luis, who
earns between 400 and 500 pesos per hour, about $20-25, working as a prostitute.
He supplements his income by feeding chickens at a local farm. He said a friend
told him he could earn a lot of money in the resort town of Cabarete, about 25 miles
from Puerto Plata. But he now has to share part of his profits with a pimp who
leaves him notes at a local hotel informing him of his next trick. Less than half of
child prostitutes use condoms regularly, and only 38 percent have been tested for
AIDS, says an October study by Profamilia, a Dominican family planning
organization. In July and August 2001, the group surveyed 118 prostitutes between
ages 10 and 17 in Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo. Profamilia and Mais say many
parents know their children are prostitutes, but in some cases the families
encourage it to ease their crushing poverty. The country has been known for years
as a sex tourism destination. "In some nightclubs one can find brochures with
pictures of naked children and phone numbers for taxi drivers that will take them to
child prostitutes," said Maria Josefina Paulino of Mais. Janet, a 17-year-old
prostitute who is pregnant with triplets, said she was forced into the trade at 13
when she had a son and couldn't feed him. She has worked in the Puerto Plata
beachfront for the last four years. "I started sneaking out my house to do it," she
said. "I left my house when I was 14." Janet was tested for AIDS a week ago
because of her pregnancy, and the results came out negative. "I know AIDS kills
because a friend of mine died from that, so I always use a condom," she said. Her
26-year-old friend Mariluz began prostituting herself when she was 14. When she
was 16 she worked in a nightclub where the owners made her use a condom and
get tested for HIV. Social taboos and scant resources for education mean many
children don't understand the risks. Some groups say to educate child prostitutes on
the use of condoms and the dangers of AIDS would essentially be endorsing the
unsavory trade. "The country has a series of weaknesses in protecting its children,
including protection against AIDS," says Jaime de la Rosa, joint director of the
government AIDS council. In the meantime, Mais and Profamilia fear the virus will
continue to advance without a nationwide education campaign directed at child
prostitutes. "I'd like to stop doing this and start a new life, but I can't live from feeding
chickens," said Jose Luis.
The main world body on migration is joining with the offices of the first ladies of four
Latin American nations in an effort to reduce the number of children who are
transported far from their homes to suffer as indentured domestic, agricultural or
sex workers. The International Organization for Migration has announced the launch
of a new program to combat child trafficking in Colombia, El Salvador, Paraguay
and Bolivia, with backing from the Inter-American Development Bank. The first
ladies of those nations - the wives of the respective residents except in the case of
Bolivia - will play a significant role in the project. Bolivian President Evo Morales is
unmarried, and his sister Esther occupies the post of first lady of the Andean nation.
Set to last 15 months, the pilot program will draw upon successful counter-trafficking
efforts in Peru, conveying those practices to more than 100 teachers representing
10 schools from each of the participating nations. Organizers are counting on a
multiplier effect, as they estimate that the initial corps of educators will directly reach
more than 4,000 primary- and secondary-school students. "IOM and its partners
hope this chain of knowledge will continue to reach parents, neighbors, local
authorities and the public at large," commented the head of the organization's
counter- trafficking mission in Lima, Dolores Cortes. The International Labor
Organization estimates that roughly 1.3 million people in Latin America and the
Caribbean - most of them women and children - are subjected to forced labor, and
the IOM says that one aim of the new project is "to place the subject of human
trafficking in school programs and on public agendas." The IOM described Bolivia
as both a "source and transit country" for the trafficking of men, women and children
bound for forced labor and sexual exploitation elsewhere in Latin America and in
more distant locales such as Spain, Japan and the United States. Bolivian
youngsters are also trafficked within the country to supply labor for mining and
agriculture
Honduran girls, 13 and 14 year olds, were trafficked by organized crime groups in
central America from the cities of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and El Progreso
under false pretenses, such as job offerings and scholarships and sold to brothels
in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico. (Interpol, "More Honduran Girls
Prostituted," Reuters, 28 February 1998)
As many as 100 Honduran children have been smuggled overland into Canada
from Honduras, by a professional drug ring trafficking children to Vancouver. The
Honduran smugglers pay the childrens’ transportation costs and help them across
the Canadian border. Once in Vancouver, the traffickers put the children in
apartments, help them file refugee claims and sign up for welfare. In return, the
children are turned out on the street as indentured drug dealers. (Adrienne Turner,
"Drug ring lures kids as dealers: Hondurans as young as 11 deal crack in
Vancouver," Ottawa Citizen, 20 July 1998)
Case
In May 1996 Guatemalan Dora Silvia Barrios Melendez was arrested for attempting
to traffic five girls to Guatemala for the purpose of prostitution. She was taking the
girls to the Palace brothel in Guatemala City, reportedly owned by Mario Aguilar,
who was to pay her 150 quetzales (US$25) for each of the girls she delivered. In
December 1997 she was sentenced to 2 years, 8 months in prison, and to
immediate expulsion from the county upon her release. ("Guatemalan Child
Prostitute Trafficker Receives 2-Plus Year Prison Sentence," El Heraldo, 3
December 1997
PROSTITUTION
The majority of the street girls seen by Casa Alianza in their programs in Honduras
are victims of prostitution.
All homeless girls in Honduras, who engage in "survival sex" in exchange for basic
necessities, were initially victims of sexual abuse in their homes.
The Government of Mexico does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking; however it is making significant efforts to do so. Mexico
remains on the Tier 2 Watch List for a second consecutive year for its failure to
provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking, particularly in the area
of law enforcement. Deficiencies in Mexico’s efforts to combat trafficking remained
throughout the year, though the Mexican Government has recently committed to do
more. Legal reforms are pending in the Mexican Congress which, if passed, may
aid with trafficking-related prosecutions and convictions. Currently, trafficking
victims in Mexico are at risk of being further victimized because of inadequacies in
the current legal system, notably the lack of protection for victims. The Center for
Investigation and National Security (CISEN) of the Secretariat of Government was
recently designated as the coordinating agency for anti-trafficking efforts. CISEN
faces structural inefficiencies in collecting data and fostering investigations,
prosecutions, and convictions of trafficking cases. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2005
Statistics suggest that the highest concentrations of child prostitutes are found in
Asia and South America. An enormous increase in child prostitution in Russia,
Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic has emerged, as well.
World Vision has learned through its work in many of these countries that the
average age of a child in the commercial sex trade is 14 years. Of these children,
many have acquired sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS.
Compounding the problem, organized sex tourism, which is especially on the rise in
countries in Asia and Central and South America, has resulted in a greater supply
of child victims to meet the demand. For example, one-third of the prostitutes in
Cambodia are children. North Americans, Europeans, Australians, Chinese and
others are customers of sex tours in Asia and Latin America.
ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking of Children) estimates
that 25% of sex tourists worldwide are Americans, including U.S. military overseas.
A survey conducted in December 2001 by World Vision and the Cambodian
Government indicates that Western pedophiles accounted for about 38% of all child
sex offenders in three principle destinations for tourists in Cambodia.
Commercial sexual exploitation occurs in wealthy, industrialized nations, as well. In
the United States, research conducted by Dr. Richard J. Estes at the University of
Pennsylvania revealed that between 244,000 and 325,000 American children are at
risk of being victimized by commercial sexual exploitation each year.
In addition, the U.S. Government estimates that approximately 50,000 women and
children are trafficked into the United States annually for service in the sex trade. In
Eastern Europe, young girls are promised respectable jobs in countries such as
Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, but end up on the streets working as
prostitutes.
The main world body on migration is joining with the offices of the first ladies of four
Latin American nations in an effort to reduce the number of children who are
transported far from their homes to suffer as indentured domestic, agricultural or
sex workers. The International Organization for Migration has announced the launch
of a new program to combat child trafficking in Colombia, El Salvador, Paraguay
and Bolivia, with backing from the Inter-American Development Bank. The first
ladies of those nations - the wives of the respective residents except in the case of
Bolivia - will play a significant role in the project. Bolivian President Evo Morales is
unmarried, and his sister Esther occupies the post of first lady of the Andean nation.
Set to last 15 months, the pilot program will draw upon successful counter-trafficking
efforts in Peru, conveying those practices to more than 100 teachers representing
10 schools from each of the participating nations. Organizers are counting on a
multiplier effect, as they estimate that the initial corps of educators will directly reach
more than 4,000 primary- and secondary-school students. "IOM and its partners
hope this chain of knowledge will continue to reach parents, neighbors, local
authorities and the public at large," commented the head of the organization's
counter- trafficking mission in Lima, Dolores Cortes. The International Labor
Organization estimates that roughly 1.3 million people in Latin America and the
Caribbean - most of them women and children - are subjected to forced labor, and
the IOM says that one aim of the new project is "to place the subject of human
trafficking in school programs and on public agendas." The IOM described Bolivia
as both a "source and transit country" for the trafficking of men, women and children
bound for forced labor and sexual exploitation elsewhere in Latin America and in
more distant locales such as Spain, Japan and the United States. Bolivian
youngsters are also trafficked within the country to supply labor for mining and
agriculture
Major FindingsPatterns of child sexual exploitation are fueled by: 1) the use of
prostitution by runaway and thrownawaychildren to provide for their subsistence
needs; 2) the presence of pre-existing adult prostitution markets in the communities
where large numbers of street youth are concentrated; 3) prior history of child sexual
abuse and child sexual assault; 4) poverty; 5) the presence of large numbers of
unattached and transient males in communities--including military personnel,
truckers, conventioneers, sex tourists, among others; 6) for some girls, membership
in gangs; 7) the promotion of juvenile prostitution by parents, older sib-lings and boy
friends; 8) the recruitment of children by organized crime units for prostitution; and,
in-creasingly, 9) illegal trafficking of children for sexual purposes to the U.S. from
developing countries lo-cated in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and
Central and Eastern Europe. Further, the investigators confirmed that: 1) Between
244,000 and 325,000 American children and youth are “at risk” each year of
becoming victims of sexual exploitation, including as victims of commercial sexual
exploitation (e.g., child pornography, juvenile prostitution, and trafficking in children
for sexual purposes); 2) as a group, sexually exploited children are quite
heterogeneous and include children living in their own homes as well as children
who are runaways and thrownaways; 3) sexual exploiters consist mostly of men, but
some women and juveniles (including older siblings) also sexually exploit children;
4) the major groups of sexual exploiters of children include: a) family members and
acquaintances; b) strangers; c) pedophiles; d) transient males including military
personnel, truck drivers, seasonal workers, conventioneers and sex tourists, among
others; e) “opportunistic” exploiters, i.e., per-sons who will sexually abuse whoever
is available for sex including children, but who may sub-sequently focus on children;
f) pimps; g) traffickers; and h) other juveniles; 5) criminal networks are actively
involved in the sexual exploitation of children and profit signifi-cantly from that
exploitation; 6) substantial numbers of foreign children are trafficked into the U.S.
for sexual purposes; and 7) significant numbers of American youth also are
trafficked for sexual purposes across the U.S. and, in some cases, to other
economically advanced countries.
In Sri Lanka, children often become the prey of sexual exploiters through friends and
relatives. The prevalence of boys in prostitution here is strongly related foreign
tourism.
An estimated 12,000 Nepalese children, mainly girls, are trafficked for sexual
commercial exploitation each year within Nepal or to brothels in India and other
countries.
Some 84 % of girls in prostitution interviewed in Tanzania reported having been
battered, raped or tortured by police officers and sungu sungu (local community
guards). At least 60% had no permanent place to live. Some of these girls started
out as child domestic workers.
In El Salvador, one-third of the sexually exploited children between 14 and 17 years
of age are boys. The median age for entering into prostitution among all children
interviewed was 13 years. They worked on average five days per week, although
nearly 10% reported that they worked seven days a week.
In Vietnam, family poverty, low family education and family dysfunction were found to
be primary causes for CSEC. Sixteen per cent of the children interviewed were
illiterate, 38 % had only primary-level schooling. Sixty-six per cent said that tuition
and school fees were beyond the means of their families.
Caribbean
In order to evaluate, briefly and objectively, the situation regarding prostitution and
trafficking in women in Latin America and the Caribbean, we must consider the
commitments agreed to by the different governments and the international community at
the Copenhagen Summit as well as at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women.
Then we must establish which commitments have been met, and come up with some
conclusions regarding the quality of life for women and girls within the region.
Regarding sexual exploitation and its implications, the first indicator that must be
considered is the Total Foreign Debt. As the commonality affecting most countries, this
factor is the main link between poverty and women’s situation. Governments' political good
will indicators show that this situation has not changed. The number of women heads of
household is more visible and is increasing. Full employment is not a priority in economic
and social policies; thus free choices for a secure life style for women are restricted. We
are finding ever-increasing numbers of women and girls in prostitution as a way to survive.
Unemployment rates increase very fast. There are no social welfare plans or alternatives to
discourage migration from the rural areas.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies and the impact of global economy
measures have benefited the sex industry. Privatization and tourism development ensure
that those countries looking for development will also find sex tourism, along with the
exploitation of natural resources and the loss of national sovereignty.
Regarding the Action Plan agreed on the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, no
country has met objective No. 4 Violence against Women: "to eliminate the trafficking in
women, and to give assistance to women victims of prostitution and trafficking." Tabloids
quite often report how the police regularly and brutally raid brothels, bars, and nightclubs
and detain women who are being sexually exploited. There is no respect, promotion or
protection of women’s human rights, on the contrary the same law and order enforcement
officers violate these rights. There is no protection for the women and children victims of
exploitation, trafficking and child prostitution. Otherwise, international networks involved in
these practices would not gain ground. The number of cases of women and children victims
of such crimes has continued to increase, including sex tourism and pornography within
South America, and also in other world regions. The most talked about pornography
scandal recently is the Paris incident in which Colombian children were used in the making
of pornography videos.
In Brazil, the problem is similar to that of Central America in that, except for local
prostitution rings in the northeast of the country and the Amazon, most of the selling occurs
in popular beach destinations. Mr. Enriques of the Brazilian Embassy stated that, while
there is no official data to confirm these occurrences, most of the international connection
with the child prostitution industry occurs with organized trips by European tour operators
to popular destinations such as Recife and Fortaleza. There is also evidence that
prostitution rackets in Brazil range from highway truck stops in the Amazon to the beaches
of Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Enriques further stated that the Brazilian government is taking action
to diminish this problem by educating the public on the subject and providing toll-free
numbers to call and report this type of occurrence. The Brazilian government?s agenda is
currently much more focused on keeping children out of the streets than on the sex tourism
industry per se.43 Brazil?s Child Protection Law has not only served as a model to other
Latin American countries but it has also enabled the government to reduce the number of
minors in the workforce from 4 million in 1997 to 2.9 million today. However, increasing
international awareness on the subject of child prostitution in Brazil has finally brought
forward a program that specifically addresses this issue. President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso recently approved Brazil?s first-ever US$3 million program to combat child
prostitution and the growing sex-tourism industry
OVERVIEW OF THE PROBLEM IN LATIN AMERICA
The problem of trafficking of women has reached global proportions in recent years. A
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report states that two million women and children from
Asia, the former USSR and Latin America, are tricked each year by traffickers who offer
them jobs abroad.6 The same report states that of those two million women and children
about 50,000 per year are brought to the U.S. for prostitution. While most of these
individuals come from Asia and Eastern Europe, about 10,000 originate from Latin America
each year.7 But this figure hardly reflects the reality of what is happening today in Latin
America. For example, it is estimated that about forty million children are being prostituted
in Latin America as a result of poor economic conditions.8 The sex-tourism industry is
booming in the region due to increased poverty and lack of regulation and control
measures. In Nicaragua, a government study conducted in 1999 stated that 82% of
children who prostituted themselves had done so within the last year.9 In addition, 47% of
these children had chosen this path out of economic necessity and 96% engaged in
prostitution to sustain their drug dependency (50% are dependent on glue).10 These
figures are quite representative of the general scenario in Central America. Further, in
Guatemala, the local police estimates that about 2,000 girls and boys are being sexually
exploited in 600 brothels in the capital alone.11 Costa Rica, which is currently Central
America?s leading tourist destination with one million foreign visitors in 1999, is believed to
have the biggest child prostitution problem in the region.12 While there are no statistics
that show the number of men that travel to Costa Rica for sex with young prostitutes, local
authorities estimate them to be about 5,000 each year.13 Moreover, the National Institute
for children estimates that about 3,000 children14 are involved in prostitution in the
country?s capital. Children are not only prostituted but also sold for adoption. According to
the United Nations Children?s Fund (Unicef), illegal adoptions from third world countries
are also on the rise with Guatemala currently being the main Latin American provider of
babies to Western nations.15
Dominican Republic
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women participated in all the sessions of the "First
Dominican Congress of Women in Prostitution or Sex Workers" held in Santo Domingo in
May 1995. It was responsible for considerable political/ideological discussion regarding the
term "sex worker". The Centre for Orientation and Comprehensive Research (Centro de
Orientacion y Investigacion Integral-COIN), who organized the event, chose the Congress’s
name and confirmed the participation of two of the most controversial personalities in Latin
America and the Caribbean: Gabriela Leite, Brazil, from the National Association of Women
Prostitutes (who did not participate at the last moment), and Economist Zoraida Ramirez
Rodriguez, Venezuela from the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. The Dominica
women in prostitution attending this event, whether they were residents of this country or
not, decided to give careful consideration to the terms "sex worker" and "woman in
prostitution" before adopting one of them.
The largest number of sexually exploited women from Latin America comes from the
Dominican Republic. These women are vital to the sex industry. This is the reason why this
process of reflection around the term "sex worker" had such relevancy.
Female Prostitution in Latin America
In Mexico, a number of girls as young as fourteen were promised jobs in
housekeeping/child care but when they arrived to the U.S., they were told they had to work
in brothels serving migrant workers.46 Today, it is not uncommon to hear of Mexican
women being trafficked to Florida to sexually serve migrant workers. Further, while most of
the trafficking from Central American women appears to be headed for the U.S., as
evidenced by Mexican women who work as prostitutes, maids or housekeepers, South
American women sometimes head towards the U.S. but appear to be heading more often
towards Europe. Mr. Cortes from the INS pointed out in an interview that Colombian and
Brazilian women are often sexually exploited in Europe.47 Further, Mr. Enriques confirmed
this fact by stating that there is a regular movement of women between Brazil and Spain.
He does not believe that this flow constitutes a significant industry yet, but believes that it is
the result of a basic economic reality for these women since they can earn thousands of
dollars a month prostituting themselves in Spain compared to a few hundred dollars in
Brazil. Mr. Enriques pointed out that in the past, poor economic conditions had also driven
Brazilian women of Japanese descent to migrate to Japan. In fact, in the early nineties,
about 200,000 young Brazilian women of Japanese descent, between the ages of eighteen
to twenty-nine, had moved to Japan to find better jobs. Some of these women intended to
work as hostesses but ended up working as prostitutes, thereby evidencing a transnational
connection between prostitution rings in Brazil and Japan.
However, as of today, Brazil constitutes the second supplier of female prostitutes to the
world. A recent UN (United Nations) study pointed out that about 75,000 Brazilian women
currently work as prostitutes in Europe.48 Out of these 75,000 women 95%49 are
estimated to be living as slaves. During November 2000, the United Nations Office of Drug
Control and Crime Prevention signed an agreement with the Brazilian government whereby
the Brazilian government commits to fight the trafficking of women and children in Brazil and
around the world. The main recipient countries for Brazilian female prostitution are:
Portugal, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, France, Canada and Israel. Portugal and Spain
are obvious destination choices because of language affinity. In Portugal, a UN report50
stated that 60% of the prostitutes are from Latin America, mostly from Brazil. In Spain for
example, Brazilian prostitutes work primarily in cosmopolitan cities such as Seville,
Barcelona and Madrid. The Spanish government is concerned about the increase in
Brazilian prostitutes and is developing legislation to deport illegal aliens. Another important
recipient country outside of Europe is Surinam. In Brazil, the critical area of recruiting for
prostitutes is in the north of the country. The Interpol has been actively involved in the
prevention and detection of trafficking routes used by Brazilian women. At present, the
Brazilian government?s schedule includes programs to train the police and judges that
work in border regions.
Chile
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, along with other Chilean NGOs, strongly
denounced the exclusion of problems affecting female children and women, such as sexual
exploitation and violence, from the Fourth Meeting of the Latin American Human Rights
Inter-Parliamentarian Commission, which met in Chile in May 1996. These demonstrations
constitute an important political-ideological achievement since members of the Parliaments
in the different countries of the region make up the commission, and are the same people
in charge of legislating. Therefore, it is so important to stress upon them the need to use
the tools, which guarantee women and female children their Human Rights.
In Chile, as well as in other countries, some groups and individuals acknowledge and try to
justify prostitution as work. The painful years people suffered under General Pinochet’s
dictatorship have not helped for a better understanding of the meaning of the human rights
violation of citizens within a political and civil rights context.
Another form of trafficking of women is managed by the mail order bride industry. Women
are advertised in local papers, magazines, catalogs and the Internet. With over two
hundred mail order bride agencies in the U.S. in 1998, each one serving more than one
thousand men per month paying $200 for each woman25, this industry?s importance
needs to be recognized. The number of agencies that deal with Latin American women has
also proportionally increased with twenty agencies out of a total of 153 in March 1998
compared to twenty-four agencies out of a total of 202 in May 1998.26 This type of service
can often lead to fraud or abuse because many of these women are willing to take risks just
to obtain U.S. residency.
Latin American trafficking has differences and similarities with trafficking in other areas of
the world. For example, some peculiarities can be pointed out among trafficking in Asia,
Europe and Latin America. In Asia, children are sold to trade by families and friends, or
sold as servants. Some of these children do not know that they are being sold and others
are even kidnapped from their homes. Quite often these children are trafficked across
borders or from rural areas to urban areas. In Europe, trafficking is more consistently done
from poor countries to wealthier countries, where they are marketed to organized pedophile
rings and high-tech information services. In Latin America, children usually are already
working in the streets and ultimately choose or are forced to enter the sex trade because
they are economically vulnerable. The children believe they will benefit from protection
from their pimps, but end up being controlled and abused by them.
However, many similarities can be found in the organization and operation of trafficking
networks across borders. Ms. O?Neil?s study points out that Latin American trafficking
appears to operate similarly to Asian trafficking, as they use independent contractors to
move victims across the border using the same routes27 as alien smugglers.28 These
groups are usually controlled by other Latino Americans who only deal with Latin women in
brothels. The underlying abusive aspect of recruiting is also quite similar around the world.
For instance, one of the basic premises of human trafficking, as well as other forms of
organized crime, is that it feeds on and exploits human suffering and poverty caused by
poor economic conditions and/or regional conflicts.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN SLAVERY: THE HUMAN COST
Most women who engage in prostitution do so through family, friends or through newspaper
or Internet ads that promise jobs as secretaries, salesperson, waitresses and other jobs.
However, these women soon find out that these jobs do not exist. They are subsequently
taken prisoners and forced into prostitution or other forms of servitude in order to pay off
the debts that they have incurred in order to get to their destination. Quite often they are
sold to brothels for profit and cannot fight for themselves because they are illegal in the
country and lack freedom of action. This type of criminal activity has proven to be quite
profitable. According to Amy O?Neil Richard in ?International Trafficking in Women to the
United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime,? a report
written in 1999 for the Center for the Study of Intelligence, in recent cases traffickers have
made US$1 million to US$8 million over a one- to six-year period.21 Further, she states
that in Latin America, profitability is just as lucrative as in other parts of the world. She
cites the example of a Mexican crime family that forced deaf Mexicans to peddle trinkets,
making an astonishing US$8 million in four and a half years. Other Mexicans made US$2.5
million in two and a half years by forcing women into prostitution, with an average client
paying US$22 per 15 minutes.22 Moreover, the United Nations Office of Drug Control and
Crime Prevention states that trafficking of human cargo currently represents a US$5 to
US$7 billion industry.23
The opportunity for such lucrative business has kept criminal networks very much involved
in trafficking, which enables them to capitalize on this form of human slavery. Trafficking,
as opposed to alien smuggling,24 which is structured around short-term profits, relies on
long-term exploitation for monetary gain. The victims, which have invested a significant
amount of money to reach their destination and get set up, have to repay the traffickers
over time, thereby creating a owner-slave type relationship. As a result, they are already
indebted before they find out that the jobs that were promised to them never existed.
Sometimes, girls are talked into marriage under false pretenses and end up being sold as
prostitutes. Usually they are first approached by a friend or sister who is already in the
destination country.
While much attention has been paid to trafficking in drugs and smuggling of illegal aliens,
trafficking of women and children for slavery purposes still remains an issue with which the
average citizen is less familiar. The fact is that trafficking of women has accelerated over
the last ten years, as Dona Hughes, director of Women Studies Program at the university
of Rhode Island, points out.1 Moreover, human trafficking is the third most profitable
criminal activity in the world after drugs and arms trafficking, bringing in about US$7 billion
in profits every year.2 Globalization has posed new economic and social challenges for
women who have become more vulnerable to the inequities of the world. This vulnerability
has, in turn, increased migration of women around the world in the hope of finding work to
sustain themselves and their families. This economic necessity has placed women at
greater risk of being the target of transnational organized crime, given that the latter
usually feeds on human misery and economic crisis. Children, especially street children
who have been subjected to abuse, have also become victims since they fall to the same
type of predators. The result has been an increase in prostitution and other slave-like
conditions for women and children in search of work.
In Central America, a lot of attention is being placed on children whether it involves
smuggling for illegal adoption or child prostitution. For instance, a recent illegal adoption
ring in Mexico and other countries in Central America, has been documented as having
smuggled seventeen babies across borders for US$22,000 each.32 In El Salvador the
police arrested the leader of a criminal organization specialized in smuggling children to the
U.S.33 On the child prostitution front Central America, specifically Guatemala, El Salvador,
Costa Rica and Nicaragua, has successfully marketed its beaches, which have attracted an
increasing number of men who are looking to have sex with children. Most of these men
come from North America, Europe and Latin America. While there are no hard statistics
that clearly quantify the situation in Central America, local surveys show that the problem is
on the increase. For instance, in Nicaragua a recent Unicef report showed an increase in
prostitution among children that are between the ages of twelve and sixteen.34 Further,
during 1999, the International Police (Interpol) discovered a prostitution network of young
girls from Central America working in bars along the Guatemala-El Salvador border.35 In
Guatemala, where 5.7 million people are under the age of eighteen (52% of the
population), 80% live below poverty levels.36 Street children are used by networks of child
pornographers to film movies in hotels. These networks later sell the movies on the
international pedophile markets. Further, the Interpol has rescued over twenty Salvadoran
girls in prostitution rings over the past three years. Also, in Honduras the police arrested
an Australian pedophile with ninety-four cases against him in Australia.37 In Honduras,
organized crime rings traffic girls, which are between the age of thirteen and fourteen, to
brothels in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico. Another case involved one hundred
Honduran children, who were smuggled to Canada and handed to a drug ring, which sent
the kids to Vancouver to be placed in streets to sell drugs.
Abuses Against Street Children
In August 1993, to cite one example, the Special Rapporteur communicated with the
Brazilian Government concerning allegations of the exploitation and abuse of street
children by law-enforcement officials. The officials were alleged to have killed eight street
children and injured others in Rio de Janeiro in July 1993. The allegation followed a long
list of others noted in the Special Rapporteur's report on Brazil submitted to the
Commission on Human Rights in 1992.The Brazilian Government responded by
acknowledging the charge. "As pointed out in your communication, this incident is not an
isolated case", the Government said in its response. "The Brazilian Government is well
aware that the killings of street children are not a new phenomenon and that certain
elements of the policy may be implicated in the actions of 'death' squads". Three policemen
and a fourth man were in prison awaiting trial for murder, and the commander of the Fifth
Police Corps in Rio de Janeiro, to whom the three policemen were subordinated, was
dismissed from his post.Non-governmental organizations have played an important role in
pressuring Governments to respect both international law and in many cases similar laws in
their own countries, particularly when it is clear that they have been partly or largely
responsible for violations of those laws. Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental human
rights organization with offices in Europe and the United States, has investigated numerous
allegations. These include trafficking of women and girls from Nepal into India for use as
prostitutes; the conditions of bonded labourers in Pakistan, many of whom are children;
and the improper detention of juveniles by the criminal-justice system in Jamaica. Human
Rights Watch recently released reports on India and Pakistan in mid-1995 that were highly
critical of Government complicity. In the United States, new tools for fighting sexual abuse
of children overseas and international child pornography have been incorporated into the
Mann Act, a 1910 Act of Congress originally aimed at prohibiting the interstate
transportation of women "for immoral purposes".
In Brazil, maid jobs are close to slavery-women are generally expected to live at the
household of their employer at least six days a week and to work whenever needed during
that entire time. For this they are paid about forty dollars a month. Rape of maids is
common. Maids are not allowed to take their children to work, and they cannot afford other
accommodation, so children are generally left alone in a room of a neighbor (where they
are often abused, raped, and go hungry) or they live on the streets.
These children, trapped in a closed cycle, form the next generation of Brazil’s poor. Young
women often become pregnant at eleven or twelve. Since abortion is illegal in Brazil, young
women often die as a result of illegal abortions.
Race and Gender in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Salvador is a city of three million people, of whom 80% are African-Brazilian, nearly all living
in the material misery of shantytowns. Throughout Brazil, African-Brazilian women 75% less
money than white Brazilian men for the same work; 67% of African-Brazilian women work as
domestic servants. The shantytowns themselves are vast ‘invasions’ (the local term) of self-
constructed shacks along open sewers, infested with rats and cockroaches. Tuberculosis
and other diseases are endemic. Drugs, and now small arms sales, are major economies.
Brazil has one of the highest homicide rates by non-military gunfire in the world.
What about the authorities?
Ironically, street children are often at greatest risk of violence from those that are
responsible to protect them – the police and other authorities. Police often beat,
harass, sexually assault and even torture street children. They may beat children for
their money or demand payment for protection, to avoid false charges, or for
release from custody. They may seek out girls to demand sex. For many street
children,assaults and thefts by the police are a routine part of their lives. Some are
even killed by police. Very rarely are those responsible brought to justice.
Nobody knows. Street children are not easy to count because: they move around a
lot, within and between cities; they are often excluded from ‘statistic-friendly’
infrastructures (schools, households etc.); definitions of ‘street children’ are vague
and differing. Numbers of 'street children' have often been deliberately exaggerated
and misquoted in order to sensationalise and victimise these children. Street
children have the right to be accurately represented. City-level surveys conducted by
local organizations and supported by a clear definition are more reliable. In many
countries, there is anecdotal evidence that numbers are increasing, due to
uncontrolled urbanisation (linked to poverty), conflict and children being orphaned
by AIDS. Most statistics are just estimates e.g. Kenya: 250,000; Ethiopia: 150,000;
Zimbabwe: 12,000; Bangladesh: 445,226; Nepal: 30,000; India: 11 million (these
are based on broad definitions of ‘street children’). Regardless of the statistics,
even one child on the streets is too many if their rights are being violated.
Street Kids’ Locked Up
Street children in Honduras are being locked in shelters as the nation fights crime,
begging and gangs. Faced with chronic poverty and a soaring crime rate, the
Honduran government last spring began a sweep of street children, removing them
to government-sponsored centers. The centers, authorities say, offer the children a
future by providing them with counseling and referrals to agencies. As of
September, more than 1,000 children had been picked up and sheltered for varying
lengths of stays in one of four centers in the country. Each center has room for 150
children, and all are full, according to Lesbia Lagos, director of Hogares de
Proteccion Kennedy.
Children - some as young as 6 - are taken to the centers by teams of police and
social workers if they are seen begging, prostituting themselves or just walking the
streets alone at night. Lagos said children who have families are returned home
only if their parents have an income and the children attend school. Otherwise they
are referred to nongovernmental organizations that work with children. But many of
these agencies won't accept the referrals, and the children stay much longer,
possibly years, until they turn 18 and are considered adults.
The roundups reflect the tremendous social problems in one of the poorest and
youngest democracies in the Western Hemisphere. In Honduras, half the population
of 6.5 million is under 18. The average monthly income is about $65, and the
unemployment rate hovers at 28 percent. There are no reliable estimates as to the
numbers of street children in Honduras. They are believed by government officials
and advocates alike to be in the thousands.
The sweeps come at a time when police are arresting hundreds of teenagers and
young adults in a crackdown on gangs. Membership in gangs is now considered an
"illicit association," which carries a sentence of up to seven years in jail. The law is
a response to an increase of violent crime over the past decade by young gangs
that have carved up major cities into their turf.
Business owners support the crackdown. "Street children used to be all over
downtown," said Gina Burgos, 48, general manager of the Medieval Bar and
Restaurant. "You couldn't go anywhere without them following you, coming into
businesses asking for money, grabbing you. It's better now but a little strange.
Where have they gone? They just disappeared from downtown."
An ILO study on the worst forms of child labour in Jamaica has unearthed a
disturbing practice of widespread prostitution by children, some as young as 10
years old, in six of the island's 14 parishes. While the study did not state definitively
how many children were involved in prostitution, the researchers said they consulted
269 persons, 129 of whom were children. The remainders, 140, were adult
stakeholders. Of the children categorized as being involved in formal prostitution,
the majority were girls, but boys, primarily in homosexual relationships, were also
identified. The researchers recommended that the government strengthen a 1999
child care and protection bill to classify as a criminal offence, the use of children in
prostitution. They also suggested the formation of national machinery to work in
collaboration with a child labour elimination programme. (Jamaica Observer)
PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic -- On this Caribbean country's white
beaches, teenage and child prostitutes wearing next to nothing troll the resort areas,
frolicking near groups of foreign tourists to lure their attention away from the
emerald seas. Poorly educated and immersed in poverty, they offer themselves for
pennies - a desperate act that activists say is helping spread the AIDS virus in the
country. "I do it for the money," said a lanky 16-year-old boy who gave his name as
Eduardo. "I don't need to get tested because I know I'm not sick." Like dozens of
others, he walks the Puerto Plata beachfront, 100 miles northwest of the capital
Santo Domingo, shining shoes and occasionally selling himself to the highest
bidder. At least 35,000 Dominican youths under 19 have turned to prostitution for
survival, and as many as 15 percent of them could be HIV positive, according to
Mais, a Dominican non-governmental organization working to end child prostitution
in the Spanish-speaking country. The Dominican government estimates that at least
130,000 Dominicans have HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, and more than 52,000
have died from the disease since 1985. Unlike adult prostitutes who often work at
nightclubs and are required to be tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted
diseases, child prostitutes are largely unregulated. "I always use a condom, but
many don't and I know of many who have (AIDS)," says 17-year-old Jose Luis, who
earns between 400 and 500 pesos per hour, about $20-25, working as a prostitute.
He supplements his income by feeding chickens at a local farm. He said a friend
told him he could earn a lot of money in the resort town of Cabarete, about 25 miles
from Puerto Plata. But he now has to share part of his profits with a pimp who
leaves him notes at a local hotel informing him of his next trick. Less than half of
child prostitutes use condoms regularly, and only 38 percent have been tested for
AIDS, says an October study by Profamilia, a Dominican family planning
organization. In July and August 2001, the group surveyed 118 prostitutes between
ages 10 and 17 in Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo. Profamilia and Mais say many
parents know their children are prostitutes, but in some cases the families
encourage it to ease their crushing poverty. The country has been known for years
as a sex tourism destination. "In some nightclubs one can find brochures with
pictures of naked children and phone numbers for taxi drivers that will take them to
child prostitutes," said Maria Josefina Paulino of Mais. Janet, a 17-year-old
prostitute who is pregnant with triplets, said she was forced into the trade at 13
when she had a son and couldn't feed him. She has worked in the Puerto Plata
beachfront for the last four years. "I started sneaking out my house to do it," she
said. "I left my house when I was 14." Janet was tested for AIDS a week ago
because of her pregnancy, and the results came out negative. "I know AIDS kills
because a friend of mine died from that, so I always use a condom," she said. Her
26-year-old friend Mariluz began prostituting herself when she was 14. When she
was 16 she worked in a nightclub where the owners made her use a condom and
get tested for HIV. Social taboos and scant resources for education mean many
children don't understand the risks. Some groups say to educate child prostitutes on
the use of condoms and the dangers of AIDS would essentially be endorsing the
unsavory trade. "The country has a series of weaknesses in protecting its children,
including protection against AIDS," says Jaime de la Rosa, joint director of the
government AIDS council. In the meantime, Mais and Profamilia fear the virus will
continue to advance without a nationwide education campaign directed at child
prostitutes. "I'd like to stop doing this and start a new life, but I can't live from feeding
chickens," said Jose Luis.
The main world body on migration is joining with the offices of the first ladies of four
Latin American nations in an effort to reduce the number of children who are
transported far from their homes to suffer as indentured domestic, agricultural or
sex workers. The International Organization for Migration has announced the launch
of a new program to combat child trafficking in Colombia, El Salvador, Paraguay
and Bolivia, with backing from the Inter-American Development Bank. The first
ladies of those nations - the wives of the respective residents except in the case of
Bolivia - will play a significant role in the project. Bolivian President Evo Morales is
unmarried, and his sister Esther occupies the post of first lady of the Andean nation.
Set to last 15 months, the pilot program will draw upon successful counter-trafficking
efforts in Peru, conveying those practices to more than 100 teachers representing
10 schools from each of the participating nations. Organizers are counting on a
multiplier effect, as they estimate that the initial corps of educators will directly reach
more than 4,000 primary- and secondary-school students. "IOM and its partners
hope this chain of knowledge will continue to reach parents, neighbors, local
authorities and the public at large," commented the head of the organization's
counter- trafficking mission in Lima, Dolores Cortes. The International Labor
Organization estimates that roughly 1.3 million people in Latin America and the
Caribbean - most of them women and children - are subjected to forced labor, and
the IOM says that one aim of the new project is "to place the subject of human
trafficking in school programs and on public agendas." The IOM described Bolivia
as both a "source and transit country" for the trafficking of men, women and children
bound for forced labor and sexual exploitation elsewhere in Latin America and in
more distant locales such as Spain, Japan and the United States. Bolivian
youngsters are also trafficked within the country to supply labor for mining and
agriculture
Honduran girls, 13 and 14 year olds, were trafficked by organized crime groups in
central America from the cities of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and El Progreso
under false pretenses, such as job offerings and scholarships and sold to brothels
in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico. (Interpol, "More Honduran Girls
Prostituted," Reuters, 28 February 1998)
As many as 100 Honduran children have been smuggled overland into Canada
from Honduras, by a professional drug ring trafficking children to Vancouver. The
Honduran smugglers pay the childrens’ transportation costs and help them across
the Canadian border. Once in Vancouver, the traffickers put the children in
apartments, help them file refugee claims and sign up for welfare. In return, the
children are turned out on the street as indentured drug dealers. (Adrienne Turner,
"Drug ring lures kids as dealers: Hondurans as young as 11 deal crack in
Vancouver," Ottawa Citizen, 20 July 1998)
Case
In May 1996 Guatemalan Dora Silvia Barrios Melendez was arrested for attempting
to traffic five girls to Guatemala for the purpose of prostitution. She was taking the
girls to the Palace brothel in Guatemala City, reportedly owned by Mario Aguilar,
who was to pay her 150 quetzales (US$25) for each of the girls she delivered. In
December 1997 she was sentenced to 2 years, 8 months in prison, and to
immediate expulsion from the county upon her release. ("Guatemalan Child
Prostitute Trafficker Receives 2-Plus Year Prison Sentence," El Heraldo, 3
December 1997
PROSTITUTION
The majority of the street girls seen by Casa Alianza in their programs in Honduras
are victims of prostitution.
All homeless girls in Honduras, who engage in "survival sex" in exchange for basic
necessities, were initially victims of sexual abuse in their homes.
The Government of Mexico does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking; however it is making significant efforts to do so. Mexico
remains on the Tier 2 Watch List for a second consecutive year for its failure to
provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking, particularly in the area
of law enforcement. Deficiencies in Mexico’s efforts to combat trafficking remained
throughout the year, though the Mexican Government has recently committed to do
more. Legal reforms are pending in the Mexican Congress which, if passed, may
aid with trafficking-related prosecutions and convictions. Currently, trafficking
victims in Mexico are at risk of being further victimized because of inadequacies in
the current legal system, notably the lack of protection for victims. The Center for
Investigation and National Security (CISEN) of the Secretariat of Government was
recently designated as the coordinating agency for anti-trafficking efforts. CISEN
faces structural inefficiencies in collecting data and fostering investigations,
prosecutions, and convictions of trafficking cases. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2005
Statistics suggest that the highest concentrations of child prostitutes are found in
Asia and South America. An enormous increase in child prostitution in Russia,
Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic has emerged, as well.
World Vision has learned through its work in many of these countries that the
average age of a child in the commercial sex trade is 14 years. Of these children,
many have acquired sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS.
Compounding the problem, organized sex tourism, which is especially on the rise in
countries in Asia and Central and South America, has resulted in a greater supply
of child victims to meet the demand. For example, one-third of the prostitutes in
Cambodia are children. North Americans, Europeans, Australians, Chinese and
others are customers of sex tours in Asia and Latin America.
ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking of Children) estimates
that 25% of sex tourists worldwide are Americans, including U.S. military overseas.
A survey conducted in December 2001 by World Vision and the Cambodian
Government indicates that Western pedophiles accounted for about 38% of all child
sex offenders in three principle destinations for tourists in Cambodia.
Commercial sexual exploitation occurs in wealthy, industrialized nations, as well. In
the United States, research conducted by Dr. Richard J. Estes at the University of
Pennsylvania revealed that between 244,000 and 325,000 American children are at
risk of being victimized by commercial sexual exploitation each year.
In addition, the U.S. Government estimates that approximately 50,000 women and
children are trafficked into the United States annually for service in the sex trade. In
Eastern Europe, young girls are promised respectable jobs in countries such as
Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, but end up on the streets working as
prostitutes.
The main world body on migration is joining with the offices of the first ladies of four
Latin American nations in an effort to reduce the number of children who are
transported far from their homes to suffer as indentured domestic, agricultural or
sex workers. The International Organization for Migration has announced the launch
of a new program to combat child trafficking in Colombia, El Salvador, Paraguay
and Bolivia, with backing from the Inter-American Development Bank. The first
ladies of those nations - the wives of the respective residents except in the case of
Bolivia - will play a significant role in the project. Bolivian President Evo Morales is
unmarried, and his sister Esther occupies the post of first lady of the Andean nation.
Set to last 15 months, the pilot program will draw upon successful counter-trafficking
efforts in Peru, conveying those practices to more than 100 teachers representing
10 schools from each of the participating nations. Organizers are counting on a
multiplier effect, as they estimate that the initial corps of educators will directly reach
more than 4,000 primary- and secondary-school students. "IOM and its partners
hope this chain of knowledge will continue to reach parents, neighbors, local
authorities and the public at large," commented the head of the organization's
counter- trafficking mission in Lima, Dolores Cortes. The International Labor
Organization estimates that roughly 1.3 million people in Latin America and the
Caribbean - most of them women and children - are subjected to forced labor, and
the IOM says that one aim of the new project is "to place the subject of human
trafficking in school programs and on public agendas." The IOM described Bolivia
as both a "source and transit country" for the trafficking of men, women and children
bound for forced labor and sexual exploitation elsewhere in Latin America and in
more distant locales such as Spain, Japan and the United States. Bolivian
youngsters are also trafficked within the country to supply labor for mining and
agriculture
Major FindingsPatterns of child sexual exploitation are fueled by: 1) the use of
prostitution by runaway and thrownawaychildren to provide for their subsistence
needs; 2) the presence of pre-existing adult prostitution markets in the communities
where large numbers of street youth are concentrated; 3) prior history of child sexual
abuse and child sexual assault; 4) poverty; 5) the presence of large numbers of
unattached and transient males in communities--including military personnel,
truckers, conventioneers, sex tourists, among others; 6) for some girls, membership
in gangs; 7) the promotion of juvenile prostitution by parents, older sib-lings and boy
friends; 8) the recruitment of children by organized crime units for prostitution; and,
in-creasingly, 9) illegal trafficking of children for sexual purposes to the U.S. from
developing countries lo-cated in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and
Central and Eastern Europe. Further, the investigators confirmed that: 1) Between
244,000 and 325,000 American children and youth are “at risk” each year of
becoming victims of sexual exploitation, including as victims of commercial sexual
exploitation (e.g., child pornography, juvenile prostitution, and trafficking in children
for sexual purposes); 2) as a group, sexually exploited children are quite
heterogeneous and include children living in their own homes as well as children
who are runaways and thrownaways; 3) sexual exploiters consist mostly of men, but
some women and juveniles (including older siblings) also sexually exploit children;
4) the major groups of sexual exploiters of children include: a) family members and
acquaintances; b) strangers; c) pedophiles; d) transient males including military
personnel, truck drivers, seasonal workers, conventioneers and sex tourists, among
others; e) “opportunistic” exploiters, i.e., per-sons who will sexually abuse whoever
is available for sex including children, but who may sub-sequently focus on children;
f) pimps; g) traffickers; and h) other juveniles; 5) criminal networks are actively
involved in the sexual exploitation of children and profit signifi-cantly from that
exploitation; 6) substantial numbers of foreign children are trafficked into the U.S.
for sexual purposes; and 7) significant numbers of American youth also are
trafficked for sexual purposes across the U.S. and, in some cases, to other
economically advanced countries.
In Sri Lanka, children often become the prey of sexual exploiters through friends and
relatives. The prevalence of boys in prostitution here is strongly related foreign
tourism.
An estimated 12,000 Nepalese children, mainly girls, are trafficked for sexual
commercial exploitation each year within Nepal or to brothels in India and other
countries.
Some 84 % of girls in prostitution interviewed in Tanzania reported having been
battered, raped or tortured by police officers and sungu sungu (local community
guards). At least 60% had no permanent place to live. Some of these girls started
out as child domestic workers.
In El Salvador, one-third of the sexually exploited children between 14 and 17 years
of age are boys. The median age for entering into prostitution among all children
interviewed was 13 years. They worked on average five days per week, although
nearly 10% reported that they worked seven days a week.
In Vietnam, family poverty, low family education and family dysfunction were found to
be primary causes for CSEC. Sixteen per cent of the children interviewed were
illiterate, 38 % had only primary-level schooling. Sixty-six per cent said that tuition
and school fees were beyond the means of their families.
Most people have no idea how large the problem truly is.
