Country Child Prostitution and Pornography Afghanistan GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Children as young as eight and nine years old have been reported to be in prostitution in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Taliban's law drives women to suicide", 27 May 1998, Julian West) Albania NATIONAL STATISTICS * More than 2,000 children between the ages of 13 and 18 are involved in prostitution rings. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing CRCA) * A large number of children, as many as 4,000, work as child prostitutes in Greece. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing CRCA) * Official Italian statistics reveal that there are approximately 900 child prostitutes in Italy being trafficked from Albania. (CRCA, The Vicious Circle, 2000) * Of the 1,880 to 2,500 minors who worked as street prostitutes in Italy, 1,500-2,300 had been trafficked predominantly from Albania, and Nigeria. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * More than 8,000 Albanian girls are prostituted in Italy, and more than 30% of them are under 18. (CATW Fact Book, citing G.J. Koja, "8000 Albanian Girls Work as Prostitutes in Italy", HURINet, 25 July 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Many Albanian girls are used as prostitutes on the roads of Greece and Italy. (CRCA, The Vicious Circle, 2000) * Girls are forced into prostitution. (CRCA, The Vicious Circle, 2000) * There are reports of increasing child prostitution. (ECPAT Newsletter, May 1999) * In Greece, more than 40% of the minors in prostitution are from neighbouring or regional countries, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Albania and Iraq, which are suffering from conflicts and lack of social cohesion. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * Child traffickers lure family members to sell children, who are forced to work as prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Criminals kidnap children from families or orphanages to be sold for prostitution or pederasty rings abroad. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Recent reports from the refugee camps of Albania tell of the frequent disappearances of young women and girls from the refugee camps. It appears that these girls are being trafficked for sexual purposes to Western Europe by criminal gangs. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) Algeria GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * In Algeria, like most of Africa, child prostitution is increasing. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * In the cities and the tourist areas, increase in tourism is related to the growth of commercial sexual exploitation of children. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Not only girls, but also boys that work as vendors, couriers or domestic helps, are vulnerable to sexual exploitation in the cities. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) Andorra - Angola LOCAL STATISTICS * 3,000 children under the age of 18 are involved in prostitution for survival. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * An international NGO that works with street children estimated that there are 500 to 1,000 underage prostitutes in Luanda. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * 5,000 children are sold for sex on the streets of the Angolan capital Luanda. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The commercial sexual exploitation in the country, especially child prostitution is on the increase. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp citing Defence for Children International, Angola Section) * Sexual exploitation of children by military groups, street children earning their living through prostitution, and the numbers of foreign men exploiting Angolan minors are on the rise in the country. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * Unconfirmed reports dating back to 1998 state that the number of underage girls in prostitution in Angola is increasing. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) Antigua and Barbuda - Argentina GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The number of prostituted children are reported to be increasing at an alarming rate and their average age is decreasing. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * The Directorate of Migration of the Dominican Republic estimates that there are approximately 400 rings of alien smugglers and purveyors of false documents operating within the country. These individuals profit by facilitating the trafficking of women to Spain, Netherlands and Argentina under false pretenses, for purposes of prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Argentina has a well-documented child sex trade related with the thriving sex-tourism sector. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * Argentina is one of the favoured destinations of paedophile sex tourists from Europe and the United States. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Global law to punish sex tourists sought by Britain and EU", The Indian Express, 21 November 1997). * Child victims of prostitution are present in large numbers. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) Armenia GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There were reports that older girls in local orphanages were approached with offer to engage in prostitution, either locally or abroad. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * In Greece, more than 40% of the minors in prostitution are from neighbouring or regional countries, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Albania and Iraq which are suffering from conflicts and lack of social cohesion. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * Armenian women work as prostitutes in the Middle East, and there have been reports of trafficking in women and girls in the past. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Australia NATIONAL STATISTICS * There are 3,000 children, some younger than 10, in the Australian sex industry, which includes brothels, escort work, street prostitution, pornography, sex for favours and stripping.(ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * 3,733 children under the age of 18 are engaged in commercial sexual activities. Most were from the state of Victoria, followed by New South Wales and south Australia. ('Children sell their bodies to survive', AFP, 11 November, 1999, citing International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999) * 59 of 2,992 prostitutes studied for a report conducted by ECPAT were between 10 and 12 years old. 15 were under 10 years old. Two-thirds were girls. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * More than 3,100 Australian children aged 12-18 sold sex to survive. (CATW Fact Book, citing Sarah Hudson, "Child sex soaring", Herald Sun, 30 September 1998) * It was recently acknowledged that paedophilia is a serious problem in Australia. The Blue Room, an Internet bulletin board had 60% of its messages about child pornography. There were more than 450 subscribers, more than 100 in Australia. (CATW Fact Book, citing Paul Robinson, "Internet use by abusers ring, say investigators", The Age, 14 September 1997) * A report has identified 5,000 paedophiles who sexually abuse minors and traffic in child pornography operating in loose networks across Australia. They are linked to international paedophile groups including the Spartacus Club, the Marlin Coasters and the Orchid Club. 30,000 girls and 11,000 boys are sexually abused in Australia each year. (CATW Fact Book, citing Paul Robinson, "Warning on child sex ring:, The Age, 14 September, 1997, citing National Crime Authority Operation Bodega Report, Victoria Child-Protection Unit) LOCAL STATISTICS * More than 1,200 Victorian children are involved in prostitution - the highest rate in the nation. (CATW Fact Book, citing Sarah Hudson, "Child sex soaring", Herald Sun, 30 September 1998) * 320 Queensland children were involved in child prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing Sarah Hudson, "Child sex soaring", Herald Sun, 30 September, 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong are some of the primary Asian destinations for organised sex tours from Australia. Indonesia and Taiwan are secondary destinations. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Malaysian women are trafficked for sexual purposes mostly to Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwanas well as to Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1999) * Children younger than 10 were involved in organised paedophile rings. (CATW Fact Book, citing Sarah Hudson, "Child sex soaring", Herald Sun, 30 September 1998) * Many Thai girls mostly in early teens, have been reported at various times in brothels in Sydney, Australia. ("Survival the name of the game", Bangkok Post, 3 July 1998) * Particularly in Canberra, Victoria and Queensland, Asian women are to be found in prostitution. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) Austria ADULT STATISTICS * There are 4,000-5,000 illegal foreign prostitutes, approximately 80% of the total number of prostitutes, in Vienna. (CATW Fact Book, citing European Race Audit Bulletin, 25 November 1997, citing Maximilian Edelbacher, Major Crime Bureau of the Federal Police of Austria) * In Vienna, in 1990 there were 800 registered prostitutes and about 2,800 illegal prostitutes. By 1995, the number of registered prostitutes had declined to 670, but the number of illegal prostitutes had climbed to 4,300. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking in Women to Austria for Sexual Exploitation", IOM and the Austrian Minister for Women's Affairs, June 1996) * In Graz, in the late 1980s there were 120 registered prostitutes, most of them Austrian. Now, there are over 300 registered prostitutes, 55% of them Austrian. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking in Women to Austria for Sexual Exploitation", IOM and the Austrian Minister for Women's Affairs, June 1996) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * A report issued by the Ministry of Interior of Slovakia on trafficking states that Slovakia is only a transit country for persons being trafficked mainly to Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany for the purpose of forced prostitution.(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Women from the Dominican Republic are trafficked to Spain, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands. (CATW Fact Book, citing European Conference on Trafficking in Women, Trafficking of Women to the European Union, June 1996) Azerbaijan GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Women usually are sent to the UAE or Western Europe, mainly Germany, to participate as workers in the sex industry, for example, in strip clubs, and as prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Women from Iran, Russia, and sometimes Iraq, are transported through Baku to the UAE, Europe, and occasionally the United States for prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Prostitution has risen, due to the refugee influx. (CATW Fact Book, citing Dave Carpenter, "Baku Looks to Prosper From Oil", AP, 12 October, 1997) Bahamas - Bahrain - Bangladesh NATIONAL STATISTICS * Bangladeshi police estimate that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 children engaged in street prostitution. (ILO-IPEC, Karen C. Tumlin , Overview of Child trafficking for labour Exploitation in the Region citing Ghaley 1998, Working Papers on Child Labour in Asia - Vol -2, Bangkok, ILO, 2001) * It is estimated that there are 10,000 child prostitutes but other estimates range as high as 29,000. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * 20% of the child prostitutes in India come from Bangladesh and Nepal. (BNWLA, Salma Ali, Country Report on Trafficking in Children and their Exploitation in Prostitution, October 1998, citing a research publication by Dr. K.K. Mukherjee, India) * Over the last decade, 200,000 Bangladeshi girls were lured under false circumstances and sold into the sex industry in nations including Pakistan, India and the Middle East. (CATW Fact Book, citing Tabibul Islam, "Rape of Minors Worry Parents", IPS, 8 April, 1998) * About 10,000 girls are active in prostitution inside the country. (ILO-IPEC, Rapid Assessment of Child Labour Situation in Bangladesh, 1996) * 0.32% of the total child labourers are engaged in prostitution and a majority are females. (ILO-IPEC, Rapid Assessment of Child Labour Situation in Bangladesh, 1996) * About 40,000 children from Bangladesh are involved in prostitution in Pakistan. Bangladeshi girls are also trafficked to India for commercial sex trade. (ILO-IPEC, Rapid Assessment of Child Labour Situation in Bangladesh, 1996) * One could estimate a figure of 25 to 50 girl child being trafficked out of Bangladesh every month. These girls are all taken to serve as prostitutes. (CWA, Brother Jarlath de Souza, "Trafficking in Children: Bangladesh", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 12, No. 3, July - September 1996) * 65% of 135 surveyed women and girls in brothels in Bangladesh were between age 11 and 13, and 33% were between age 13 and 15. (CATW Fact Book, citing BNWLA, Bangladesh Country Paper: Law and Legislation) LOCAL STATISTICS * 10,000 Bangladeshi children are in brothels in Bombay and Goa, India. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Human Smuggling from Bangladesh at alarming level", Reuters, 26 May 1997, citing Trafficking Watch Bangladesh) * There are 15,000-20,000 girl child prostitutes in Dhaka. Figures for boys are not available but the girl-boy ratio is 3:2. (Red Barnet, Misplaced Childhood: A Short Study on the Street Child Prostitutes in Dhaka City, 1997) * 9,107 women and children are in prostitution, of whom 5,529 are registered and 3,578 unregistered. (Red Barnet, Misplaced Childhood: A Short Study on the Street Child Prostitutes in Dhaka City, 1997, citing Ministry of Social Welfare and Social Affairs figures, INCIDIN) * 2.7% of prostitutes in Calcutta are Bangladeshi, the largest population of foreigners. The majority of these females are under 18. (CATW Fact Book, citing CEDAW Report: Bangladesh, 1 April 1997) ADULT STATISTICS * 27,000 Bangladeshi women and children have been forced into prostitution in Indian brothels. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Women Forced into Indian Brothels", CWCS, June 1998) * About 200 Bangladeshi women and children who are smuggled out of the country each day, mostly end up as prostitutes. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Human smuggling from Bangladesh at alarming level", Reuters, 26 May 1997) * 30,000 Bangladeshi women are in the brothels of Calcutta. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Human smuggling from Bangladesh at alarming level", Reuters, 26 May 1997) * There are 60,000-100,000 people in prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing CARE Bangladesh) * Approximately 1 million men buy prostituted women and children in Bangladesh. (CATW Fact Book, citing Wijaya Kannangara, "Paper on Cultural Violation") GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * A recent study commissioned by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) revealed that 68 per cent of children in prostitution interviewed were forced into their work. (ILO-IPEC, Karen C. Tumlin , Overview of Child Trafficking for Labour Exploitation in the Region, Working Papers on Child Labour in Asia - Vol -2, Bangkok, ILO, 2001) * For those over 18, prostitution is legal with government certification. Authorities commonly ignore this minimum age and presenting false papers easily circumvents regulations. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Child prostitution is a concern in Bangladesh. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Children are used to make pornographic films. (Nishanthi Priyangika, "Child labour on the increase in Bangladesh", World Socialist Web Site, 3/11/1999) * There is extensive trafficking of children, primarily to India, Pakistan, and destinations within the country are also largely for the purposes of forced prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * The Tanbazar brothel in Narayanganj is a market for the sale of minor girls. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Open sale of little girls at Tanbazar brothel", Daily Star, 2 July 1998, citing BNWLA) * There could be a few hundred thousand Bangladeshi girls in various houses of prostitution in India . (CWA, Brother Jarlath de Souza, "Trafficking in Children: Bangladesh", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 12, No. 3, July - September 1996) Barbados NATIONAL STATISTICS * Over 1,100 children suffered abuse in 1997- 98. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998) Belarus ADULT STATISTICS * 1,000 Ukrainian and Belarusan women are in prostitution in Poland. (CATW Factbook, citing Piotr Bazylko, " Poland, Ukraine to fight sex slave industry ", Reuters,16 July 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Increasing cases of child prostitution are reported. (ECPAT Newsletter, May 1999) * The Committee expressed concern on emerging problem of the sexual exploitation of children. (UN CRC, Comments on Belarus, 1994) Belgium ADULT STATISTICS * There are 28,000 prostitutes in Belgium, about half come from abroad, mainly Western Europe. (CATW Fact Book, citing Belgium police estimates, "The Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central and Eastern Europe", IOM, May 1995) * There are 2,000 foreign prostitutes in Belgium from developing countries and the Central and Eastern European Countries. (CATW Fact Book, citing Belgium police estimates, "The Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central and Eastern Europe", IOM, May 1995) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * A Dutch study by Terre des Hommes indicates that many children are trafficked into the Netherlands for purposes of abuse through prostitution. Many of these children, mostly girls, come from Africa. They are sold again to Belgium and other European countries where they are forced to provide sex. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * Prostitution trade networks provide Colombian women for the markets in Spain, Britain, Germany, Belgium and the United States. (CATW Fact Book, citing Gustavo Capdevila, IPS, 2 April 1997, citing Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Report on Violence Against Women) * In addition to child prostitution, in 1996 a murderous paedophile/child pornography group was uncovered. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) Belize GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * According to a spokesperson from the Human Development Department, there were rare reports of trafficking in children for the purpose of prostitution. Most cases reported involved migrant children. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Benin GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * An increasing number of children in extremely difficult circumstances are vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation. These are mostly young girls' aged 8-15. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Children are trafficked to Benin from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Kidnapping and selling of children into prostitution is reported. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) * Thai girls are found to be working as prostitutes in Western African countries including Benin. ("Thai girls lured to sex trade in Africa", Bangkok Post, 24 August 1998) Bhutan - Bolivia GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child prostitution is a growing problem, particularly among girls between the ages of 14 and 18. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Child victims of prostitution are present in large numbers. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) Bosnia and Herzegovina GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Trafficking in girls for the purpose of forced prostitution is a problem. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * A significant number of women are manipulated or coerced into situations in which they work in brothels in conditions close to slavery.(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * The country is an origin, transit, and destination point for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of forced prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Botswana - Brazil NATIONAL STATISTICS * In Brazil, an estimated 1 million children are believed to enter the multi-billion dollar sex market each year. (Child Prostitution, ECPAT Bulletin, Vol. 4/1, 1996-97) * In Brazil alone, NGOs estimate that every year between 500,000 and two million children are forced into prostitution. ("Experts meet in Brazil to fight Child Sex Slavery", Bangkok Post, 18 April 1996) * According to the Brazilian Institute of Social Action and Education, the number of girl prostitutes has risen to half a million in the whole country. (Jose Steinsleger, En el reino de Herodes, 1996) * 200,000 children are engaged in prostitution. (World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation, August 1996) LOCAL STATISTICS * In March the ILO reported that observers have cited over 3,000 girls who were subject to debt servitude and forced into prostitution in the state of Rondonia. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001, citing ILO) * In the Araras mine in Rondonia, 150 child prostitutes were found. (CATW, The Fact Book on Global Sexual Exploitation, 1999) * In Porto Murtinho, a town of 11 thousand, there are six locations of prostitution. In Coruma, (pop. 87.8 thousand) 16 prostitution establishments were found. In Campo Grande, (pop. 600 thousand) there are 12 prostitution establishments where over 100 young girls from Sao Paulo, Goias, Parana, Minas Gerais, Paraguay and Chile are prostituted in sex tourism. This practice also occurs in the municipality of Coxim where tourists staying in fishing encampments hire young girls. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Child prostitutes used in 'sex tourism' in Pantannal", SEJUP, 17 September 1997) * There are 200,000 children and adolescent prostitutes, 25,000 in the mining towns and 5,000 in the town of Belem. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) * There are an estimated 10,000 child prostitutes in Amazonia. (CATW, The Fact Book on Global Sexual Exploitation, 1999) * There are more than 3,000 child prostitutes in the state capital of Rio Branco. (SEJUP website) * 92 teenaged girls and 30 children between 8 and 12 forced into prostitution were removed from the mining area near Madeira river in Western Rondonia. (SEJUP website) * Nearly 1,000 girls between 8 and 15 are in prostitution in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. (SEJUP website, citing Brazilian Center for Social Health Information and Orientation, CEBRAIOS) * 6,000 of the 10,000 prostitutes in Santos, a port town, are children between 10 and 16. (SEJUP website, citing Catholic University of Santos Study) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Approximately 85% were victims of commercial sexual exploitation and ranged from 12 to 17 years of age. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * In the northern Amazonian region, sexual exploitation of children centres around brothels that cater to mining settlements. In the large urban centres, children, principally girls, who leave home because of abuse or sexual exploitation often prostitute themselves on the streets in order to survive. In the cities along the northeast coast, sex tourism exploiting children is prevalent, and involves a network of travel agents, hotel workers, taxi drivers, and others who actively recruit children, and even traffic them outside the country. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Child prostitution is a significant problem throughout the country, but is severe in major coastal tourist cities. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labour, 1998) * In Amazonia, the type of forced child prostitution meets every criteria of slavery. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) * A 1998 report notes a significant increase in prostitution among children under 14, and it was identified that the situation was worse in 30 municipalities. (ECPAT International) * In 1998, the economic and environmental crises has led children into prostitution for their families' survival. (CATW Fact Book, citing Phil Stewart, "Brazil drought spurs child prostitution", Reuters, 23 June 1998) * A recent survey identified 65 localities of prostitution in six cities in the Pantannal region. Many of the prostitutes are young girls. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Child prostitutes used in 'sex tourism' in Pantannal", SEJUP, 17 September, 1997, citing a survey by the Ministry of Justice) * The grave problems of child prostitution were matters of deep concern for the Committee. (UN Human Rights Committee, Comments on Brazil, 1996) * In Brazil, the trafficking of girl prostitutes is a well-organised business. (Jose Steinsleger, En el reino de Herodes, 1996) * Brazil has one of the worst child prostitution problems in the world, and is a favoured destination for paedophile sex tourists from Europe and the US. The poverty experienced by more than 40 million needy or abandoned children and adolescents increases the number of sexually exploited children every day. (ECPAT International) Brunei Darussalam GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Korea ranks 7th in terms of destination of deployed overseas Filipino workers. Illegal recruitments, allegedly for work abroad, have historically been exploited to bring women into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation in foreign lands. Current official estimates place the number of undocumented workers as 14,000. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Jean Enriquez, "Filipinos in Prostitution around U.S. Military Bases in Korea") Bulgaria ADULT STATISTICS * In 1997, police registered 200 cases of attempted smuggling of women to western brothels. (CATW Fact Book, citing Piotr Bazylko, "Poland, Ukraine to fight sex slave industry", Reuters, 16 July 1998) * According to a human rights group some 10,000 Bulgarian women, many under age 18, have fallen into the sex trade. ("International project to protect women", AP, 22 June 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Trafficking in girls for the purpose of forced prostitution is a problem. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Women reportedly have been trafficked into Bulgaria from the former Soviet Union and Macedonia, also for forced prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * La Strada, a Netherlands-based NGO, reports that Bulgarian women constitute one of the largest groups of victims of forced prostitution in Western and Central Europe. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Albania is a major conduit for trafficked women from Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. Criminal gangs recruit or coerce women to work as prostitutes abroad, most often in Italy and Greece. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Traffickers have recruited women especially from Bulgaria, Russia, and Ukraine, to work as prostitutes in several towns in TFYR Macedonia. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Bulgarian street children engage in prostitution. (EFCW, Children Who Work in Europe, June 1998) * Children are reported to be involved in large numbers in prostitution. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998) Burkina Faso GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to Burkina Faso for use as prostitutes. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999) * There has been a visible increase of children in sexual exploitation. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) Burma (Myanmar) NATIONAL STATISTICS * In 1996, there were almost 200,000 foreign children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia who had been trafficked into Thailand for prostitution and work at construction sites and sweatshops. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking of children on the rise", Bangkok Post, 22 July 1998, citing IPSR) ADULT STATISTICS * From Burma, it was estimated in 1994 that as many as 20,000 to 30,000 women and girls had been trafficked primarily into brothels in Thailand, with 10,000 new recruits being added each year. (CWA, Ahmad Saufian, Pusat Kajian Perlindungan Anak, "Child Labour in Jermals", Child Workers in Asia, Vol.15, No. 2, May - August 1999) * The number of Burmese women and girls travelling to Thailand through Mae Sai to enter the sex industry is increasing. 60% of them are under 18 years of age. (CATW Fact Book, citing Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, "Influx of Burmese sex workers", Bangkok Post, 2 June 1997) * Thai officials estimate that there are 20,000 women and girls trafficked from Burma into Thai brothels with 10,000 more imported each year. (CATW, Dorchen Leidholdt, Sex Industry Survivor and Coalition address United Nations General Assembly, Coalition Report, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1997) * There are at least 50,000 Burmese girls and women working in Thailand as prostitutes at any one time. ("Report Cites Burma’s Child Rights Abuses", ECPAT Bulletin, Vol. 4/1, 1996-97) * Women from Burma's Shan state and China's southern province of Yunnan constitute 16% of the 77,000 women in the sex industry in Thailand.(CATW Fact Book, citing "Academic urges action in war against flesh trade", The Nation, 28 May, 1997, citing IPSR, Kritaya Archavanitkul, The Passage of Women in Neighbouring Countries into the Sex Trade in Thailand) * 50% of the prostituted women in Chiang Rai are Burmese. Thousands of indigenous Burmese women from Shan State in the north and from Keng Tung in Eastern Burma have been sold into brothels in Bangkok and throughout Thailand. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There also is internal trafficking of women and girls from areas of extreme poverty to areas where prostitution is common. Men and boys reportedly are trafficked to other countries, primarily to Thailand, for sexual exploitation and for other purposes, but this appears to be a small percentage of the overall flow. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Girls are lured from Burma for the sex markets in Thailand or to be diverted to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. ("Human Trafficking: Gangs make Thailand a regional hub", Bangkok Post, 6 September, 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000) * Trafficking in women and children is a severe problem. Burma is a source country for thousands of women and young girls who are trafficked into the commercial sex industries of neighbouring countries. There are reliable reports that many women and children in border areas, where the government's control is limited, were forced or lured into working as prostitutes in Thailand and China. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Child prostitution and trafficking in girls for the purpose of forced prostitution - especially Shan girls who were sent or lured to Thailand, continues to be a major problem. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Malaysian police believe that the overwhelming number of prostitutes in Malaysia are foreigners from Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, and China. These women often work as karaoke hostesses, guest relations officers, and masseuses. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Child prostitution of young females, especially from ethnic minorities, is rampant. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998) * Girls from Burma, aged 12-18, are in more demand for the sex industry in Thailand since traffickers are luring fewer girls from northern Thailand. (CATW Fact Book, citing "More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade", Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997, citing Wanchai Boonphacra of CPCR) * There is a reported increase in the number of children of both sexes working in Burma's expanding sex industry. (Human Rights Watch/Asia, "Burma: Children's Rights and the Rule of the Law", submission to the UN CRC, January 1997) * The number of Burmese, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Chinese children enticed into or forced into prostitution in Bangkok and other cities in Thailand, increased during 1997. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) * A 1996 study, conducted at 40 commercial venues in Bangkok, Kulachada and Chaipipat, found trafficking women and children from the Mekong countries - China, Burma, Laos and Cambodia to be increasing. The largest groups of newly trafficked women into the sex industry are from Burma’s Shan state, and minority women from the Northwest border areas. ("New law targets human trafficking", The Nation, 30 November 1997) * The military and political situation in Burma, has led to an increase in migration, which has made women extremely vulnerable to trafficking for prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing SANLAAP India, Indrani Sinha, "Paper on Globalization & Human Rights") Burundi GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * According to a report on February 2000, police authorities raided a local evangelical church and discovered about 40 people especially women and children who were being sexually exploited. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * One report on the 3 of March 2000 revealed that police had discovered a pimping network of seventy women and 20 young girls in a local bar around the "hot district" of Bujumbura. The women were in the habit of requesting food and drink from the men in exchange for having sex with female minors. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) Cambodia NATIONAL STATISTICS * The ILO's IPEC reported in 1999 that more than 15% of prostitutes were from 9 to 15 years of age, and that 78% of these girls were Vietnamese; the remainder were citizens. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001, citing ILO-IPEC) * Cambodian children are trafficked to countries in Southeast Asia. There is lack of reliable data on trafficking in women and children for commercial sexual exploitation but it is estimated that 10,000 to 15,.000 women and girls are trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. (CWA, Newsletter Vol. 16 No. 2 May-August 2000, CCPCR Addressing the Sexual Exploitation of Girls in Cambodia, Yim Po. Executive Director, CCPCR) * In fact, surveys indicate that 30 to 35 per cent of all sex workers in Cambodia are children between the ages of 12 and 17 years of age. (UNICEF, Children on the Edge, citing Lin Lim, (1998) The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Basis of Prostitution in Southeast Asia (ILO), UNICEF East Asia and Pacific) * There are 14,725 prostitutes in 22 provinces and 64 districts alone - 15.5% aged 9-15 of which, 78% were Vietnamese and 22% Cambodian. (ILO-IPEC, Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities,1999) * It is estimated that 30% of commercial sex workers in Cambodia are under 18 years of age. At least half are forced into the trade either by being tricked with promises of high paying jobs or are sold. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * 33% of sex workers are between 12 and 17 years. (ILO-IPEC, Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999) * One third of 55,000 prostitutes are under 18 and most of them are Vietnamese. ("Vietnam Child Sex Trade Rising", AP Online, 24 April 1998) * There are approximately 20,000 prostitutes and the average age of the girls is 15 years. (World Vision, David Westwood, Child Trafficking in Asia, 1998) * At least 3,000 girls from south Vietnam have been trafficked to Cambodia for prostitution. More than 15% of them are below 15 years. (ILO-IPEC, Combating Trafficking in Children for Labour Exploitation in the Mekong Sub-region, October 1998) * There are 10,000 to 15,000 child sex workers in Phnom Penh alone. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour in Cambodia, 1998) * Minors, some as young as seven, constitute more than 25% of the prostitutes in Cambodia's sex industry. (CATW Fact Book, citing Joe Cochrane, "Child's tragedy raises profile of rights march", South China Morning Post, 2 February 1998) * Cambodian brothels are home to over 3,000 adolescents between 11 and 17 years. (EI, EI Quarterly Magazine, September 1997) * There are around 5,000 children in prostitution. (ECPAT Bulletin, August 1996) * 35% of sex-workers are children. (ECPAT Bulletin, August 1996)   * By March 1995, minors, aged 12 to 17, comprised nearly 31% of prostituted persons in Phnom Penh and 11 other provinces, according to a survey conducted by the Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia. (CATW Fact Book, citing "The Street of Little Flowers", Bangkok Post, 23 February 1997, rewritten from Mikel Flamm and Ngo Kim Cuc, Children of the Dust) * The overall number of prostitutes showed a huge increase during the UNTAC period, corresponding to the influx of UN troops in 1992-93. Since that time, the numbers of prostitutes have decreased, to around 17,000 in Phnom Penh, but surveys carried out by Cambodian Women's Development Association (CWDA) and Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia have shown that the percentage of young girls under 18 involved has increased from around 25% to 30 or 35%. (CWA, Tim Seaman, Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO), "Sexual Exploitation: Cambodia", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 12, Nos. 1 & 2, January - June 1996) * In 1992, the average age of prostituted persons was 18. This dropped to 15 years by April 1993. (CATW Fact Book, citing "The Street of Little Flowers", Bangkok Post, 23 February 1997, rewritten from Mikel Flamm and Ngo Kim Cuc, Children of the Dust) ADULT STATISTICS * There are 10,000 to 20,000 women and children in prostitution in Phnom Penh, a city of 1 million. (CATW Fact Book, citing Chris Seper, "Police Sweeps Help Clean Up Child Prostitution", Christian Science Monitor, 8 January 1998) LOCAL STATISTICS * In Cambodia, The NGO Vigilance pour les droits de l'Homme interviewed 6110 sex professionals in Phnom Penh and in 11 provinces. 31 % were children from 12 to 17 years old. GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Children and adults from the poorer rural areas of Cambodia are trafficked to Phnom Penh and other commercial areas for sexual exploitation. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Cambodian men, women, and children are trafficked internationally, principally to Thailand for the purpose of sexual exploitation. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Child prostitution and trafficking in children were common. There were reliable reports that children were lured from or kidnapped in some provinces and forced into the illegal sex trade, both in Cambodia and abroad. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Women from Thailand, and a few from Cambodia and China, were being smuggled into South Africa for prostitution by Chinese and South African organised crime syndicates. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Vietnamese children also are trafficked domestically and overseas to work as prostitutes. One NGO advocate estimated that, among trafficked girl children, the average age was from 15 through 17 years; many were trafficked to Cambodia and China. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Vietnamese traffickers sell hundreds of women and children each year in Europe, China, Cambodia and Macau, for prostitution and arranged marriages. (CATW Fact Book, citing "EU wants more cooperation with Vietnam to end trafficking women, drugs", AFP, 27 February 1998)   * Vietnamese prostituted girls, are bound by contracts, which last from six months to over a year. Svay Pak has the largest number of prostituted Vietnamese girls. (CATW Fact Book, citing "The Street of Little Flowers", Bangkok Post, 23 February 1997, rewritten from Mikel Flamm and Ngo Kim Cuc, Children of the Dust) * There is an organised traffic into prostitution in Cambodia of young girls from Vietnam and South China. (CWA, Tim Seaman, Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO), "Sexual Exploitation: Cambodia", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 12, Nos. 1 & 2, January - June 1996) * There is internal trafficking of young Khmer girls from province to province within the country. (CWA, Tim Seaman, Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO), "Sexual Exploitation: Cambodia", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 12, Nos. 1 & 2, January - June 1996) * The high proportion of child victims of prostitution in Thailand is aggravated by the arrival of children lured and trafficked from Cambodia, China, Laos, and Burma. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) * Prostitution has become a "fixture of urban life" in Cambodia. (CATW Fact Book, citing Laura Bobak "For Sale: The Innocence of Cambodia", Ottawa Sun, 24 October 1996) * Children as young as four have been sold into the sex industry in Cambodia. (CATW Fact Book, citing Laura Bobak "For Sale: The Innocence of Cambodia", Ottawa Sun, 24 October, 1996)   Cameroon GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Children are trafficked from and through Cameroon to other West African countries for indentured or domestic servitude, farm labour, and sexual exploitation. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * According to the NCHRF, there have been reports of farm-to-city trafficking of girls who were promised jobs in cities, but were forced into prostitution or other labour. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Canada NATIONAL STATISTICS * 70 to 80% of those involved in the Canadian sex industry began as children. (CATW Fact Book, citing Kimberly Daum, "Sexually Exploited Children in Canada", 17 October 1996) LOCAL STATISTICS * Of 1,500 people in the sex industry in Montreal, one third are women and children in street prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Prostitutes protest police sweep", Montreal Gazette, 23 June 1998) * Of 25 prostitutes known to be on the streets of Sudbury, half are under 15 years old and some are as young as 11. (CATW Fact Book, citing Wayne Chamberlain, "Half of Sudbury Prostitutes Under 15", The Sudbury Star, 13 April 1998, citing police sources) * Social workers in Toronto estimate that there are 10,000 children living on the streets and that many of them fall prey to pimps. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * There are between 600 and 300 minors involved in the sex trade in Montreal. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * More than 400 children, some as young as 11, are reported as working for pimps in Calgary. * 10% of the 100 to 200 women in street prostitution in Calgary, Canada, are under 18 years of age. (CATW Fact Book, citing Helen Dolik "Help group for families is launched" Calgary Herald, 11 August 1997) * 200-300 juveniles in Vancouver are routinely arrested on prostitution-related charges. (CATW Fact Book, citing Kimberly Daum, "Sexually Exploited Children in Canada", 17 October 1996) ADULT STATISTICS * There are an estimated 5,000 prostituted persons in Montreal. (CATW, The Fact Book on Global Sexual Exploitation, 1999) * About 12, 16-30 year old, Asian girls and women are trafficked into Canada each week on visitor's permits and sold into prostitution.The women are sold to brothel owners in Markham, Scarborough, Toronto, and Los Angeles, and forced into $40,000 debt-bondage. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Police Bust Sex-slave Ring", UPI, 11 September 1997, citing police officials) * There are 10,000 prostitutes in the Greater Toronto Area, and more than 4,000 women are in the escort trade. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Dating Services Bring Boom Times to Prostitution", Toronto Star, 1997, citing Detective Mark Marple of Peel Region and Police Nick Pron) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child sex tourism is reported to be a problem in Vancouver. It is estimated that there are about 100 offences relating to the child sex trade in Vancouver every day. People also come from other parts of Canada to Vancouver to find prostituted children. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * In February 2001, a child of 11 was the youngest victim rescued by the Vice Squad. She had been abducted in Portland, Oregon, and was being prostituted by three young Americans. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * It is thought that Chinese girls are trafficked into Western Canada to work in the sex trade. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * There are also isolated cases of Canadian minors trafficked by pimps to the United States for the purpose of sexual exploitation. (US Dept of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * A local NGO reports that girls from Costa Rica have been transported through Central America and Mexico to work in the sex industry in the United States, Canada, and Europe. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Malaysian women are trafficked for sexual purposes mostly to Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but also to Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * A recent study by the Canadian government shows that the number of children involved in prostitution is unexpectedly large. Hundreds of children are being abused as prostitutes in the province of British Columbia, which has the highest incidence of children involved in prostitution in Canada. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * Many of the young girls that are trafficked and forced into prostitution in Canada are ferried from city to city, from Seattle to San Francisco to Oakland to Phoenix to Honolulu and Portland. The pimps move them every 3-4 weeks. (CATW Fact Book, citing The Province, 19 December 1997, citing Portland Police Officer Doug Kosloske) * Vietnamese and Chinese mafia are expanding operations in brothels in Toronto, Canada. They traffic women from Southeast Asia. (CATW Fact Book, citing Rob Lamberti, "Sex Slaves: Fodder for Flesh Factories", Toronto Sun, 10 May 1998) * There is evidence of children in prostitution. (IWGCL, Working Children: Reconsidering the Debates, 1998) * Hundreds of children under 17 years old are being exploited in the sex industry in Vancouver, Canada. Middle-aged male buyers are increasingly seeking girls as young as 11. (CATW Fact Book, citing Mark Clayton, "To Curb Vancouver's Big Trade in Child Sex " Christian Science Monitor, 1997) Cape Verde - Central African Republic GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The presence of international peacekeeping forces in the capital has aggravated the problem of teenage prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Some parents force their daughters into prostitution to help support the family. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Chad - Chile NATIONAL STATISTICS * In 1992, there were an estimated 4,200 cases of child prostitution between the age of 6 and 18, based on studies carried out by UNICEF and National Service for Minors (SENANE). Presently, though there are no studies conducted, the offices of the Ministry of Justice estimate that this figure had grown to roughly 10,000. (ILO-IPEC, El trabajo infantil en America Latina - CD-ROM, August 1999) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * According to a report to the Instituto Interamericano del Niño, Chilean police claim that the pornography in circulation in Chile comes from North America, Europe, India and Asia. (ECPAT, CSEC Database citing a report to the Instituto Interamericano del Niño, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * One report calls Chile a paradise country for paedophiles dealing in child pornography because there is not effective enforcement of the relevant legislation. One report calls Chile a paradise country for paedophiles dealing in child pornography because there is not effective enforcement of the relevant legislation. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Child victims of prostitution are present in large numbers. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) China NATIONAL STATISTICS * More than 250,000 women and children are thought to have been the victims of trafficking within China alone. (UNICEF, Children on the Edge, citing, UNICEF, (2000) Every Last Child: Fulfilling the Rights of Women and Children in East Asia and the Pacific, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific) * In China, the estimates of child sex workers range from 200,000 to 500,000. (UNICEF, Children on the Edge, citing, UNICEF Issue Brief (1999), Child Protection Section, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific) * More than a quarter of a million child prostitutes were reported in China, where the true magnitude of the problem can only be guessed. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * 600,000 minors are in prostitution. (ECPAT International, The Price of Lamb, 1996) * According to the Chinese police, since 1989 about 5,000 Chinese girls have been lured across the rugged Burmese mountains that separate the two countries and sold as prostitutes. (CWA, "Serving Affluent Businessmen and Visitors", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 13, Nos. 2 & 3, April - September 1997, citing ECPAT International) ADULT STATISTICS * According to official estimates, there are now some 1 million women and children in prostitution in China. (CATW, Exposing the Trafficking of Women in China, Coalition Report, 1997) * 1.5 million prostitutes and male buyers were arrested between 1991 and 1995. (CATW Fact Book, citing AFP, 8 January 1998) * In 1994, the Peking People's Daily reported that more than one million prostitutes are serving affluent businessmen and visitors from Taiwan and Hong Kong". (CWA, "Serving Affluent Businessmen and Visitors", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 13, Nos. 2 & 3, April - September 1997, citing ECPAT International) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Thousands of women and children, most between the ages of 13 and 24 are abducted each year and forced into prostitution or marriage. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Since 1998, Chinese authorities have reported an increase in the number of children being trafficked to other countries for purposes of forced prostitution. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Girls are lured from Burma, Cambodia, Laos and south China for the sex markets in Thailand or to be diverted to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. ("Human Trafficking: Gangs make Thailand a regional hub", Bangkok Post, 6 September 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000) * Malaysian police believe that the overwhelming number of prostitutes in Malaysia are foreigners from Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, and China. These women often work as karaoke hostesses, guest relations officers, and masseuses. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * According to domestic NGOs, girls between the ages of 12 and 18 are trafficked from Burma, southern China, and Laos to work in the commercial sex industry. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Prostitutes are used to lure motorists to more than 1,000 gas stations in the Ningxia region of China. Motorists have to buy a tank of gas before they may purchase sexual services. (CATW Fact Book, citing "China petrol stations offer fill up with flair", Reuters, 21 September 1998) * Women from Burma's Shan state and China's southern province of Yunnan constitute 16% of the 77,000 women in the sex industry in Thailand. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Academic urges action in war against flesh trade", The Nation, 28 May 1997, citing IPSR, Kritaya Archavanitkul, The Passage of Women in Neighbouring Countries into the Sex Trade in Thailand) * Traffickers are increasingly transporting Burmese and Chinese girls for prostitution, partially due to a decrease in the availability of northern Thai girls. (CATW Fact Book, citing "More foreign workers join sex industry". Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997, citing Prof. Causal Sunthorntada of IPSR) * Girls from the pastoral villages of the minority tribes in Yunnan province in south-western China are being tricked by phoney offers of jobs and then being sold into prostitution in Thailand. (CWA, "Serving Affluent Businessmen and Visitors", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 13, Nos. 2 & 3, April - September 1997, citing ECPAT International) * There is a resurgence of prostitution and trafficking in women and girls all over China, involving a high percentage of children and minors. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996)   China, Hong Kong SAR GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Girls are lured from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and south China for the sex markets in Hong Kong. (Human Trafficking: Gangs make Thailand a regional hub", Bangkok Post, 6 September 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000) * Malaysian women and girls reportedly are trafficked to work as prostitutes in Hong Kong by criminal organisations; some of these women allegedly are sent to Hong Kong with promises of legitimate employment, only to be forced into prostitution upon their arrival. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Hong Kong is affected by sexual exploitation. (CWA, "Serving Affluent Businessmen and Visitors", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 13, Nos. 2 & 3, April - September 1997) China, Macau SAR GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * In late March, the Korean press reported that a Korean man was arrested on charges of forcing 40 Korean women, recruited as waitresses, into prostitution in Macau. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Vietnamese traffickers sell hundreds of women and children each year in Europe, China, Cambodia and Macau, for prostitution and arranged marriages. (CATW Fact Book, citing "EU wants more cooperation with Vietnam to end trafficking women, drugs", AFP, 27 February 1998) * GSN identified several clubs in Macau where Russian women are employed as prostitutes. (Global Survival Network, Gillian Caldwell et al, Crime & Servitude, 1997) China, Taiwan NATIONAL STATISTICS * There are 30,000 minors in prostitution in Taiwan according to government estimates. (CATW, The Fact Book on Global Sexual Exploitation, 1999, 1999, citing government estimates) * In Taiwan, between 40,000 and 60,000 children are sex workers. (UNICEF, Children on the Edge, citing, UNICEF Issue Brief (1999), Child Protection Section, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific) * Child prostitution is a problem in the wider community and involves between 40,000 and 60,000 children. Most child prostitutes range from 12 to 16 years of age. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) * 60,000 children are involved in prostitution in Taiwan. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * 40% of young prostitutes in the main red-light district are aboriginal girls. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) * There are an estimated 100,000 children in prostitution. (UNICEF Report, December 1994) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Girls are lured from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and south China for the sex markets in Thailand or to be diverted to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. ("Human Trafficking: Gangs make Thailand a regional hub", Bangkok Post, 6 September 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000) * Child prostitution is a serious problem among Aborigine Malayo-Polynesians children. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998) * The sale of Aboriginal girls into prostitution by their parents is a serious social problem. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) * Girls under 13 have been made to undergo hormone injections by brothels owners to hasten their physical development. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) Colombia NATIONAL STATISTICS * According to UNICEF, approximately 25,000 children--16, 000 of them between 8 and 12 years of age--are victims of sexual exploitation. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001, March 2002) * Estimates from various NGOs place the number of children who are commercially sexually exploited in Colombia at between 20,000 and 35,000. Most of the children are between the ages of 8 and 17, and are involved in prostitution. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * An estimated 25,000 boys and girls under age 18 work in the sex trade. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Child prostitution rings working in sex shops throughout Colombia were raided in September 1998, freeing 370 minors aged 12-16. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Colombia launches crackdown on child prostitution", Reuters, 26 September 1998) * In 1998, 225 children were rescued from several cities throughout the country from a network that sexually exploited and created pornographic videos of children. (ECPAT International) * Civil disruption in Colombia was largely behind the reported 500% increase in sexual exploitation of children between the ages of 8 and 13 in the 7 years from 1986 to 1993. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) LOCAL STATISTICS * The ICBF estimates that in Bogota alone there are over 10,000 girls and nearly 1,000 boys exploited as child prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001, March 2002) * Fundación RENACER reports that a 1996 study conducted in the city of Cartagena counted 163 prostituted girls between 13 and 17, and 11 boys of the same age range involved in homosexual child prostitution. (ECPAT, CSEC Database citing Fundación RENACER, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * In Pereira, 0.09% of the total population is engaged in prostitution; 31.8% of these are children. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * In Bogotá alone, over 300 places where child prostitution occurs have been identified. These numbers are on the rise. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * In the heart of the Colombian capital, 2,959 adolescent girls work as prostitutes, of which 2,369 are found within the establishments - hostels, bars, pornshops, the other 590 initiate their contact with the client on the street. (Jose Steinsleger, En el reino de Herodes, 1996) * In 1994, 3,000 minors were in prostitution in Bogota alone. (Human Rights Watch) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Colombia is a source country for trafficked persons, especially women and children, to Asia (Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong), Western Europe (the Netherlands and Spain), and the United States. Most victims are young women trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Prostitution trade networks provide Colombian women for the markets in Spain, Britain, Germany, Belgium and the United States. (CATW Fact Book, citing Gustavo Capdevila, IPS, 2 April 1997, citing Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Report on Violence Against Women) Comoros - Congo GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * "Shegues" is a phenomenon describing young children between the age of 13 and 16 who have left home and live and survive solely from prostitution in the street. (SIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs France and European Union, Five years after Stockholm, ECPAT International, 2001) Congo, Dem. Rep. GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The Juvenile Code includes a statute prohibiting prostitution by children under the age of 14; however, child prostitution is common in Kinshasa and in other parts of the country. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * There were reports during the year that, girls as young as 8 years of age were forced into prostitution to provide income to their families. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) Cook Islands GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Commercial sexual exploitation is a growing problem. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) Costa Rica LOCAL STATISTICS * The National Institute for Children, PANI, estimates that as many as 3,000 children in metropolitan San Jose are involved in prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * In San Jose alone in Costa Rica, there are more than 300 brothels with an average of 10 women and children working in each. This would suggest that some 3,000 women and girls are formally employed as prostitutes in a city of only 278,373 people. 1.1% of the entire population are prostituted in brothels. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There also have been reports of girls from the Philippines being trafficked to the country for the purpose of sexual exploitation. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Concern over the levels of child sex tourism here recently prompted the United Nations Committee on Human Rights to express its deep concern over the high incidence of sexual exploitation of children which it stated, was very often linked to tourism. Estimates show that as many as 5,000 sex tourists visits the country each year. (Casa Alianza, Ann Birch, "Guatemala's Brothels are Another Workplace", Child Labour News Service (CLNS), Global March International Secretariat, 1 November 1999) * A local NGO reports that girls from Costa Rica have been transported through Central America and Mexico to work in the sex industry in the United States, Canada, and Europe. There were also reports of girls from the Philippines being trafficked to Costa Rica to work in the sex industry. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * The government, police sources, and representatives of the UNICEF acknowledge that child prostitution is a growing problem. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Costa Rica is gaining a reputation of being the sex tourism capital. (ECPAT International) Cote d'Ivoire GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to the Cote d'Ivoire, for use as prostitutes. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999) * Thai girls are found to be working as prostitutes in western African countries such as Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Senegal. ("Thai girls lured to sex trade in Africa", Bangkok Post, 24 August 1998) * There has been a visible increase of children in sexual exploitation. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) Croatia GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * In the last 5 years, organised crime has moved into trafficking in women for prostitution, which has increased due to the deployment of international military forces and the opening of Eastern European borders. (CATW Fact Book, citing "NGO report on the status of women in the Republic of Croatia", 5 January 1998) Cuba LOCAL STATISTICS * Cuba's 1996 report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women stated that the problem particularly affected girls aged 14 and 15. In Havana, there are an estimated 6000 prostitutes, but the number of CSEC victims is small. It is reported that the number of child victims is smaller than other countries in the region. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, citing 1996 report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child prostitution is a problem, with young girls engaging in prostitution to help support themselves and their families. Young girls have constituted the bulk of the prostitutes catering primarily to foreign tourists. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * In Cuba, the new generation of prostituted women vary in age between 15-25, although children as young as 13 are also found. (CATW Fact Book, citing Jesus Zzqiga, "Cuba: The Thailand of the Caribbean", Independent Journalists' Cooperative, 18 June 1998) * Cuba has a well-documented child sex trade with the thriving sex tourism sector. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * It seems that many of the men who sexually exploit children are frequent visitors to Cuba, and it also appears that many of them fund their trips through smuggling. (ECPAT International, Julia O'Connell Davidson and Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism in Cuba, October 1995) * Cuba, considered to be free of prostitution since the 1960s, is experiencing an increase in prostitution and sex tourism as a result of the economic crisis. (CATW Fact Book, citing Jesus Zzqiga "Cuba: The Thailand of the Caribbean", Independent Journalists' Cooperative, 18 June 1998) * Sex workers have reported an increasing demand for adolescents and young girls. (ECPAT International) Cyprus - Czech Republic LOCAL STATISTICS * There are 200 brothels in Dubi, a small town on the border of the Czech Republic. Czech and Russian mafia control prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Tragedy of orphans left behind in 'sin town'", BBC, 22 December 1997) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There is growing evidence of child prostitution. (ECPAT Newsletter, May 1999) * Trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of forced prostitution is a problem. Law enforcement officials report that the Czech Republic is both a transit and destination country for traffickers in women from farther east. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Many of the women involved in prostitution are Slovak gypsies. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Tragedy of orphans left behind in 'sin town'", BBC, 22 December 1997) Denmark GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The Committee expressed its concern about the occurrence of the sexual exploitation of children. (UN CRC, Concluding observations on Denmark, 1995) Djibouti - Dominica - Dominican Republic NATIONAL STATISTICS * It is estimated, for example, that there are over 25,000 minors involved in prostitution in the Dominican Republic. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * There are approximately 30,000 child prostitutes. (ILO-IPEC, Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999) * 25,455 children were engaged in prostitution. The main age group was between 12-17 years, of which 64% were girls and 36% were boys. (International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999, citing a UNICEF survey carried out in 1992) ADULT STATISTICS * There are 50,000 women from the Dominican Republic overseas in the sex industry - the fourth highest number in the world, after Thailand, Brazil and the Philippines. (ECPAT International) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The country has a large sex industry that serves both local clientele and foreign visitors. The authors of the 1991 study by UNICEF and ONAPLAN called this phenomenon ""neo-prostitution'" because it occurs on moving from place to place basis, primarily in the 12 to 17 age range. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * The Directorate of Migration estimates that there are approximately 400 rings of alien smugglers and purveyors of false documents operating within the country. These individuals profit by facilitating the trafficking of women to Spain, Netherlands, and Argentina under false pretenses, for purposes of prostitution. The government also is concerned that some individuals coming to the country ostensibly to adopt children, may actually intend to use the children in the production of pornography or in the sex trade. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Sexual exploitation of children in the tourism industry is common. Tours are marketed overseas with the understanding that boys and girls can be found as sex partners. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * The Dominican Republic has a well-documented child sex trade with a thriving sex tourism sector. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * Girls are often trafficked by being lured into marriages under false pretenses and are the sold into prostitution by the 'husband'. (ECPAT International) East Timor LOCAL STATISTICS * There were numerous international media reports that in 1999 over 40 East Timorese children were flown from refugee camps in West Timor, Indonesia, for the domestic sex trade. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * East Timorese girls and women became prostitutes as a consequence of rape by Indonesian soldiers, high levels of unemployment and the need to support themselves and their children, often in the absence of their men who are away fighting or have been killed. (CATW Fact Book, citing East Timor Human Rights Centre, Newcastle University, Australia, "Violence By The State Against Women In East Timor", 7 November 1997) Ecuador GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There are instances of prostitution by girls under 18 years of age in urban areas. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Ecuador has a well-documented child sex trade with the thriving sex tourism sector. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * Children are being trafficked from Ecuador to Venezuela. The children work in virtual slavery conditions as prostitutes. (CATW Fact Book, citing Vladimir Villegas, Congressional Human Rights Commission, Estrella Gutierrez, "Child Traffic in Venezuela Tip of the Iceberg", IPS, 11 January 1998) * Child victims of prostitution are present in large numbers. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) Egypt NATIONAL STATISTICS * The embassy of the Republic of Egypt in Bangkok also reports that only 542 cases of child sexual exploitation and violation occurred from 1993-1995 and that less than 20% of the victims of these crimes were children under 18 years of age (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Although public belief is that commercial sexual exploitation of children [CSEC] is very rare because of religious teachings, the embassy of the Republic of Egypt in Stockholm reports that the official estimates of children involved in prostitution for the years 1995 and 1996 were 67 and 101 cases respectively. This amounts to 0.6% and 22% of the total number of offences relating to child abuse. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Child prostitution is rare. (International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999) El Salvador LOCAL STATISTICS * The report on the State of the Nation in Human Development of El Salvador (Estado de la Nación en Desarrollo humano de El Salvador ,1999) emphasizes that hundreds of girls from El Salvador are taken illegally to Guatemala with the promise to be employed as domestics and end up exploited and forced to be prostitutes. The procurer of the girls in Guatemala qualifies their situation as "slavery". According to the NGO Casa Alianza , the number of girls from El Salvador in this situation could be as high as 2,000. (DNI, "La prevención y eliminación de las peores formas de trabajo infantil y adolescente un reto para la democracia y el desarrollo humano." DNI- Costa Rica, 2001) * A NGO study in 1998 indicated that at least 44 % of the estimated 1,300 prostitutes in 3 major red light districts of San Salvador were between the ages of 13 and 18. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Between 10 and 25% of "visible" prostitutes are minors, and an estimated 40% of the "hidden" prostitutes who cater to upper-class clients are believed to be minors, according to a UNICEF study released during the year. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing UNICEF study) * Along the border, many children are brought into Guatemala from El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras by organised rings, who force them into prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Street children are often exploited as prostitutes. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) * Honduran girls, 13 and 14 year olds, were trafficked by organised 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. (CATW Fact Book, citing "More Honduran Girls Prostituted", Reuters, 28 February 1998, citing INTERPOL) Equatorial Guinea - Eritrea GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * In 1999, the Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare carried out a survey on commercial sex workers in the country. Although the study was on commercial sex workers in general and not child commercial sex workers in particular, the results of the survey threw some light on the extent and nature of child prostitution in the country. The survey revealed that 5% of sex workers surveyed were children between the ages of 14-17 years. It also indicated that a majority of the children entered the trade at an early age, with most of them starting off as street children and bar maids. Reports indicate that child prostitution is on the increase in the country. (ECPAT, CSEC Database citing the Ministry of Labour and Human Welfare survey 1999, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) Estonia NATIONAL STATISTICS * 1,200 children are engaged in prostitution. (World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation, August 1996) * According to official sources there are 2,000 prostitutes in Estonia. A criminal reporter estimated that the number of minors among these were about 20-30% while a source at the Ministry of Social Affairs believed that about half of the prostitutes were minors. (ECPAT International, Helena Karlen and Christene Hagnen, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Some Eastern European Countries, March 1996) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * In Estonia, 26% of prostitutes are minors 50% of the exploiters are estimated to be Estonian and the rest are foreigners, mainly Russin, Swedish and Finnish nationals. (SIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs France and European Union, Five years after Stockholm, ECPAT International, 2001) * Finnish press reports alleged large-scale child prostitution in Estonia. The Government called these reports exaggerated but admitted that underage prostitution occurs. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) Ethiopia GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * A study carried out by the NGO FORUM revealed that in the Mercato area , hotels, bars and landladies, most of them former prostitutes, are engaged in renting rooms to young girls for prostitution. The age of girls engaged in prostitution in this area is reported to be between 15 and 18 years.(ECPAT, CSEC Database citing FORUM study http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * According to another study carried out by the same organisation in 2000 in Dessie, one of the growing cities in the country, sexual harassment, and child prostitution and the enticement of schoolgirls for sexual reasons were found to be prevalent in the city. (ECPAT, CSEC Database citing FORUM study http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * In October 1999, the National Steering Committee Against Sexual Exploitation of Children reported that child prostitution is on the increase especially in major urban centers; however, there are no statistics available. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * In October, the Committee reported that child prostitution is on the increase especially in major urban centres of the country. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * There have been many press reports of the large-scale employment of children, especially underage girls, as hotel workers, barmaids, and prostitutes in resort towns and truckstops south of Addis Ababa. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Thousands of young girls are brought and stolen from countrysides for prostitution, and there is reportedly a network of sex smugglers based in tourism and the import-export sector. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998) Fiji NATIONAL STATISTICS * 12% of 47 Commercial sex workers in Urban centres were under 19 year. (ECPAT- Australia, AusAID, First Pacific Regional Conference on Preventing the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Pacific Children, citing, Nii. K Plange, Commercial Sex Workers in Fiji (1996), June 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Some Asian women brought to Fiji as garment workers are believed to be engaged in prostitution. Most of them are believed to be from China. ("Fiji Investigates Asian Sex Trade in Garment Industry", Fiji's Daily Post/Pacific News Online, 24 March 2000, reprinted in Pacific Islands Report) * There are reports of parents offering the sexual services of their own children for money to sailors from Korea and Taiwan who come to Fiji for refueling. (UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Report on Fiji, 27 December 1999) * Boys and girls in Fiji become involved in prostitution because of poverty, boredom, desire to earn money for extra spending, demand by tourists and lack of enforcement of education. (UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Report on Fiji, 27 December 1999) * Child prostitution is happening in urban centres, says Adi Vulase of Safetynet Care Fiji, a non-profit organisation that looks into the welfare of homeless children. ("Fiji Kids in Sex Trade", Fiji Times, 29 October 1999, reprinted in Pacific Islands Report) * Street children in Fiji are in danger of sexual exploitation and being involved in prostitution for Western tourists. ("Fiji Kids in Sex Trade", Fiji Times, 29 October 1999, reprinted in Pacific Islands Report) Finland GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child Pornography is a concern in Finland. While available information does not offer statistics on the production and possession of child pornography. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * The Government believes that most trafficking involves women and girls for prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Child prostitution is increasing. (International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999) * In 1994, the first sex club opened in Helsinki, Finland. By 1996, there were 13. (CATW Fact Book, citing European Conference on Trafficking in Women, Trafficking of Women to the European Union, June 1996) France GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * France is a destination and transit country for trafficked victims, primarily women from Africa, South America, Eastern and Southern Europe, and the New Independent States. In general, victims are trafficked into sexual exploitation or domestic slavery. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Child prostitution seems to be a phenomenon of concern. (EFCW, Children Who Work in Europe, June 1998) Gabon GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Women and children are also trafficked to Gabon for sexual exploitation. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to Gabon for use as domestic child servants, market traders, child beggars and prostitutes. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999) * Trafficking in children, which is always a problem, continues to be a subject of considerable media coverage in Benin. Most victims are abducted or leave home with traffickers who promise educational opportunities or other incentives. They are taken to places in foreign countries (according to the press, principally to Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Gabon) and sold into servitude in agriculture, as domestics, or as prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Gambia GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Sex tourism is a problem in Gambia although the authorities are refusing to recognise its existence. There are reports of a sizable influx of European women seeking sex with underage boys but there are also incidents of men seeking sex with young girls. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Observations and unofficial contacts with people have also confirmed the existence of CSEC with victims primarily girls, but lately boys with the increase of homosexual behaviour in the country. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) Georgia - Germany ADULT STATISTICS * 15,000 Russian and Eastern European women are engaged in prostitution. (Global Survival Network, Gillian Caldwell et al, Crime & Servitude, 1997) * There are 6,000-8,000 women in prostitution in Hamburg, about 70% of them are migrant prostitutes and 50% of those are East European women, from Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic. The majority is controlled by pimps, isolated in apartment-brothels and controlled by Russian mafia organisations. (CATW Fact Book, citing Lucia Brussa "Transnational AIDS Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe", TAMPEP, 1996, citing the Hamburg Police Department) * There are between 60,000 and 200,000 women in prostitution in Germany. Foreign women and girls account for about a half of the women in prostitution, most of them are illegal immigrants. (CATW Fact Book, citing Michele Hirsch, "Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Women and Forced Prostitution", Council of Europe, 1996) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Most trafficking victims are women and girls between the ages of 16 and 25 who are forced to work as prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Homeless children in Romania have increasingly been trafficked under false pretenses and forced into prostitution in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany and Amsterdam, Holland. (CATW Fact Book, citing Save the Children, Albert Clack, "Romania: Life on the Streets", 1998) * The E55 highway from Berlin, Germany to Prague, Czech Republic is lined with hundreds of prostituted women, mostly gypsies or Ukrainians. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Giving the customer what he wants", Economist, 14 February 1998) * In Germany, pimps employ young girls as prostitutes to service truck drivers and travellers along the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic. (Global Survival Network, Gillian Caldwell et al, Crime & Servitude, 1997) * Several German citizens have been arrested for sexually exploiting children by producing pornographic films in Romania and Hungary. (Global Survival Network, Gillian Caldwell et al, Crime & Servitude, 1997) * 15,000 Russians and Eastern European women are engaged in prostitution in Germany. Solwodi (Solidarity with Women in Distress), a German NGO working with migrant prostitutes, estimates the actual number of underage migrant women working in German sex clubs is much higher. (Global Survival Network, Gillian Caldwell et al, Crime & Servitude, 1997) * In Germany, 75% of the prostitutes are foreigners. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking of Women to the European Union", European Conference on Trafficking in Women, June 1996) Ghana LOCAL STATISTICS * According to one report, there are approximately 125 brothels in Accra alone where young girls are forced into prostitution (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Children are trafficked to and from Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, and Nigeria for indentured or domestic servitude, farm labour and prostitution. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Child prostitution, although illegal, exists. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * In 'Troikas' custom, at times, girls are made sexual slaves. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) * Thai girls are found to be working as prostitutes in Western African countries such as Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Senegal. ("Thai girls lured to sex trade in Africa", Bangkok Post, 24 August 1998) * Young girls are tricked into prostitution in the belief that they will be housemaids. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) Greece NATIONAL STATISTICS * Findings indicate that the number of minor children in prostitution has tripled during the last 5 or 6 years. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * In Greece, more than 40% of the minors in prostitution are from neighbouring or regional countries, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhastan, Armenia, Albania and Iraq which are suffering from conflicts and lack of social cohesion. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * A study in Greece from 1995-97 identified almost 2,900 minors in prostitution. More than 200 of them were under 12 years old. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * 5,500 cases of sexual exploitation were reported in the last 3 years. (International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999) LOCAL STATISTICS * Prostitution is now legal in Greece. In December 1997, there were 160 brothels in Athens, 24 operating without permits. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Greece cracks down on prostitution", UPI, 17 December 1997) * A survey by the Maragopoulos Foundation for Human Rights, carried out from September 1995 to March 1997 in Athens, revealed the presence of around 3,000 children and young persons involved in prostitution. (EFCW, Children Who Work in Europe, June 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child prostitution is a growing phenomenon, particularly in some parts of immigrant communities of central Athens. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Trafficking in women for prostitution in Greece has increased sharply in recent years. While the government is stiffening its border controls, in part because of the EU Schengen agreement, there are figures suggesting that many women are brought into the country from neighbouring Bulgaria, Albania, or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The victims of this practice are often minors. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Relief agencies warned that criminal gangs were trying to abduct young girls from Kosovo and traffic them to Italy and Greece for forced prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Grenada - Guatemala NATIONAL STATISTICS * 60% of the prostitutes are between 16 and 18 years of age. 20% of prostitutes are under 15 years. (International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999) LOCAL STATISTICS * Child prostitution is very visible in Guatemala City. The police estimate that over 2,000 girls and boys are being exploited in over 600 brothels in the capital alone. The NGO Rädda Barnen confirmed this. (UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Report on the mission to Guatemala, 27 January 2000) * Police in late 1996 estimated that more than 2,000 minors were being exploited in approximately 600 clandestine bars and brothels in Guatemala City, approximately 1,200 of them were Salvadoran, 500 were Honduran and Nicaraguan, and the rest were Guatemalan. (ECPAT International) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The Ministry of Labour, UNICEF, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography, who visited the country in July 1999, have noted a marked increase in child prostitution over the past 2 years in the towns along the borders with Mexico and El Salvador. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Along the border with El Salvador, many child prostitutes were brought into the country from Nicaragua and Honduras by organised rings, who force the children into prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * In its annual report for 1999 on the state of children, ODHAG clearly identified the growing problem of child prostitution as linked inextricably to that of trafficking in persons. The report notes that no child prostitute "got there alone" without inducement and exploitation by adults. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * The most common and visible form of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Guatemala is prostitution. The use of children in pornography is also known to exist, but the secrecy that surrounds this kind of exploitation makes it more difficult to establish. (UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Report on the mission to Guatemala, 27 January 2000) * The Police Commissioner acknowledged to the Special Rapporteur that there are many children in prostitution in the country, most of them between the ages of 15 and 17. (UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, Report on the mission to Guatemala, 27 January 2000)   * Honduran girls, 13-and 14-year-olds, were trafficked by organised 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. (CATW Fact Book, citing "More Honduran Girls Prostituted", Reuters, 28 February 1998, citing INTERPOL) * International bands of traffickers are reported to be recruiting Guatemalan adolescents on the border with Mexico and exploiting them in regional brothels. (ECPAT International) * The majority of the street girls attended by Casa Alianza in their programs in Guatemala are victims of prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing Casa Alianza, Bruce Harris, "The Situation of Street Children in Latin America", 9 October 1997) * Among the internally displaced communities in Guatemala some parents have been forced to prostitute their children. (UN, Graca Machel, Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, 26 August 1996) * In Guatemala, rebel groups used girls to provide sexual services. (UN, Graca Machel, Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, 26 August 1996) * Eight El Salvadorian girls were rescued from a night-club raid in Guatemala City, where they had been trafficked under false pretenses and sexually exploited. (ECPAT International) Guinea GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Prostitution exists in the informal economic sector and employs girls as young as 14 years of age. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Guinea-Bissau - Guyana GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * It appears that the most frequent form of commercial sexual exploitation is child prostitution, which is often linked with tourism. Apparently trafficking in children for sexual purposes is a growing problem. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * The NGO Guyana Human Rights Association reported cases of trafficking of female adolescents, aged 14 and 16 years old, who were travelling from the capital city of Georgetown to the Suriname border for the purpose of prostitution. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * The practice of teenage girls trading sexual favours for money is a problem. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Haiti - Honduras NATIONAL STATISTICS * In 2000 the Government co-operated with Mexican officials to repatriate approximately 400 Honduran girls trafficked to Mexico for purposes of sexual exploitation. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Government estimates show there are 8,000 street children and about 40% are regularly engaged in prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) LOCAL STATISTICS * There are thousands of street children in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, about 40% are regularly engaged in prostitution. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) * Police in late 1996 estimated that more than 2,000 minors were being exploited in approximately 600 clandestine bars and brothels in Guatemala City, approximately 1,200 of them were Salvadoran, 500 were Honduran and Nicaraguan and the rest were Guatemalan. (ECPAT International) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child prostitution is increasing. (International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999) * Along the border, many children are brought into Guatemala from El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras by organised rings, who force them into prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Honduran girls, 13-and 14-year-olds, were trafficked by organised 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. (CATW Fact Book, citing "More Honduran Girls Prostituted", Reuters, 28 February 1998, citing INTERPOL) * The majority of the street girls, seen by Casa Alianza in their programs in Honduras are victims of prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing Casa Alianza, Bruce Harris, "The Situation of Street Children in Latin America", 9 October 1997) Hungary NATIONAL STATISTICS * There are an estimated 500 children engaged in prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Hungary considers legalized prostitution", 1 December 1997, citing UNICEF) LOCAL STATISTICS * There are an estimated 500 child prostitutes in Budapest. (Guardian, August 1996, reprinted in ECPAT Bulletin) * The proportion of girls under 18 in prostitution, according to the police, is 5-10% in Budapest. (ECPAT International, Helena Karlen and Christene Hagnen, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Some Eastern European Countries, March 1996) ADULT STATISTICS * An estimated 10,000 adults are engaged in prostitution. Budapest alone may have 7,500 prostitutes. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Hungary considers legalized prostitution", citing police expert Akos Borai) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The country was once primarily a source for women and children trafficked for the purpose of forced prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Women and children are trafficked for sexual exploitation mostly from Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and China to and through Hungary to Austria, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, France, and the U.S. Men trafficked for forced labour through Hungary to the EU and the U.S. come from Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Many of the victims of trafficking are brought to the country by organised crime syndicates, either for work in Budapest's thriving sex industry or for transit to Western Europe or North America. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Since 1990, there has been a significant increase in the number of foreign prostitutes from Romania, Ukraine and Russia. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking and Prostitution: The Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central and Eastern Europe", IOM, May 1995) Iceland - India NATIONAL STATISTICS * Over 1 million girls and women are believed to be forced into the sex industry within the country at any given time. Women's rights organisations and NGO's estimate that more than 12,000 and perhaps as many as 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the country annually from neighbouring states for the sex trade. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * According to an ILO estimate, 15% of the country's estimated 2.3 million prostitutes are children. The traffic is controlled largely by organised crime. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * It is estimated that Nepalese children constitute 20% (40,000) of the estimated 200,000 Nepalese prostitutes in India. Girls as young as seven years are trafficked from economically depressed neighborhoods in Nepal and Bangladesh, to the major prostitution centres of Mumbai, Calcutta, and Delhi. In Mumbai, an estimated 90% of sex workers started when they were under 18 years of age; half are from Nepal. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Prostitution is widespread, with an estimated 2.3 million prostitutes in the country, some 575,000 of whom are children. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * According to ILO estimates, 15% of the country's estimated 2.3 million prostitutes are children. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Recent studies indicate that of the estimated 9,000,000 prostitutes working in India, some 30% or 2,700,000 are children. A further 10% reported that they had started their 'career' in prostitution before they were 18 years of age. A large number of these children are trafficked from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * One quarter of prostitutes are minors. (CATW, The Fact Book on Global Sexual Exploitation, 1999) * 25-30% of prostitutes are children. An estimated number of child prostitutes is 400,000. (ILO-IPEC, Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999) * There is a growing pattern of trafficking in child prostitutes from Nepal. According to one estimate, 5,000 to 7,000 children, mostly between the ages of 10 and 18, are drawn into this traffic annually. NGOs in the region estimate that some 6,000 to 10,000 girls are trafficked annually from Nepal to Indian brothels and a similar number are trafficked from Bangladesh. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Women's rights organisations and NGOs estimate that more than 12,000 and perhaps as many as 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the country annually from neighbouring states for the sex trade. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * 30% of India's 1 million prostitutes are girls below the age of 16 years. (SPARC, The State of Pakistan's Children, 1999, citing "Child Prostitution Increasing in Indo-Pak", The Frontier Post, 25 November 1998) * A survey by the Central Social Welfare Board of India indicated that the population of Nepalese women and child victims of commercial sexual exploitation in Indian brothels would be between 70,000 to 100,000 of which 30% were below 18 years. (ILO-IPEC, Usha D. Acharya, Country Report: Nepal, October 1998) * Over 100,000 child prostitutes are estimated to be in India's major cities. (June Kane, Sold for Sex, Aren Ashgate Publising Limited Gower House, 1998) * Over the last decade, 200,000 Bangladeshi girls were lured under false circumstances and sold into the sex industry in nations including Pakistan, India and the Middle East. (CATW Fact Book, citing Tabibul Islam, "Rape of Minors Worry Parents", IPS, 8 April 1998) * Every year between 5,000 and 7,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked into the red-light districts in Indian cities. Many of the girls are barely 9 or 10 years old. (CATW Fact Book, citing Soma Wadhwa, "For sale childhood', Outlook, 1998) * 27,000 Bangladeshi women and children have been forced into prostitution in Indian brothels. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Women Forced into Indian Brothels", CWCS, June 1998) * 200,000 Nepalese girls under 16 years are in prostitution. (Penelope Saunders, "Sexual Trafficking and Forced Prostitution of Children", 29 October 1998) * 40,000 Nepalese girls under 16 in Indian brothels are forced into prostitution. (Penelope Saunders, "Sexual Trafficking and Forced Prostitution of Children", 29 October 1998) * 20% of the child prostitutes in India come from Bangladesh and Nepal. (BNWLA, Salma Ali, Country Report on Trafficking in Children and their Exploitation in Prostitution, October 1998, citing a research publication by Dr. K.K. Mukherjee of India) * 300,000-500,000 children are engaged in prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing Rahul Bedi, "Bid to Protect Children as Sex Tourism Spreads", Daily Telegraph (London), 23 August 1997) * 15% of prostitutes in India are under the age of 18 years. (ECPAT, "Innocence Sacrificed on Tourism Altar", Bulletin, October 1996) * A 1996 survey published in India Today magazine estimated there are between 40,000 and 50,000 child prostitutes in the country, activists now say that figure might have jumped to about 250,000. ("Children For Sale", Asia Week, 1 March 1996) * Conservative estimates say some 300,000 children are involved in the sex industry. (ECPAT, "Six Foreigners Charged in India Child Sex Case", The Nation, 18 October 1996, reprinted in ECPAT Bulletin, October 1996) * Between 2,000 and 5,000 children are sent across the border to India for prostitution every year. (ECPAT, Kota Neelima, "Young Sex Workers are Costly Commodity", Bulletin, July 1996) * An estimated 400 sex workers came from Bangladesh every month and about 5,000 came from Nepal every year. (Kota Neelima, "Young sex workers are a costly commodity", ECPAT Bulletin, July 1996, citing Indrani Sinha of SANLAAP India) * 500,000 girls work as sex workers. (UNICEF ) * The average age of the Nepalese girls entering an Indian brothel is said to be 10-14 years, some 5,000 to 7,000 of them being trafficked between Nepal and India annually. (UNICEF India, Richard Young, "Understanding Underlying Factors", Child Workers in Asia, January-June 1996) * Every year 5,000 to 7,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked to India. An estimated 40,000 to 45,000 of these girls are in Bombay brothels and also nearly an equal number of them are in Calcutta. (Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Action, The Flesh Trade Report, 1995-1996) * Nepalese social workers estimate the number of Nepalese girls and women working in Indian brothels at about 200,000, and believe that between 5,000 and 7,000 new Nepalese end up in Indian brothels every year. (Human Rights Watch/Asia, Rape and Profit, June 1995) * There were an estimated 400,000-500,000 child prostitutes in 1991. (Human Rights Watch) LOCAL STATISTICS * Half of 100,000 girl prostitutes between 10-14 in Bombay are from Nepal and kept in brothels against their will. (Penelope Saunders, "Sexual Trafficking and Forced Prostitution of Children", 29 October 1998) * In Bombay, India, at least half of the city's 100,000 prostitutes are believed to be Nepalese girls. (ILO-IPEC, Usha D. Acharya, Country Report: Nepal, October 1998) * The number of Nepalese girls and women engaged in prostitution in Calcutta exceeds 27,000, in Delhi it is more than 21,000, in Gorakhpur it is 4,700, and in Banaras it is 3,480. (ILO-IPEC, Usha D. Acharya, Country Report: Nepal, October 1998) * 10,000 Bangladeshi children are in brothels in Bombay and Goa, India. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Human smuggling from Bangladesh at alarming level", Reuters, 26 May 1997, citing Trafficking Watch Bangladesh) * Approximately 20,000 or 20% of women in prostitution in Bombay are under 18 years of age. (CATW Fact Book, citing Robert I. Freidman, "India's Shame: Sexual Slavery and Political Corruption are Leading to an AIDS Catastrophe", The Nation, 8 April 1996) * A NGO states that the number of children in flesh trade is increasing by 8-10% every year ("The Young and the Damned", The Week, 4 August 1996, reprinted in ECPAT Bulletin, July 1996) *10,000-12,000 Bangladeshi children are thought to be employed in the brothels of Bombay and West Bengal. (An Alternative Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, submission to the UN CRC, 1997, citing UNICEF, The Progress of the Nations, 1995) * About 45,000 Nepalese girls are in the brothels of Bombay and 40,000 in Calcutta. (CATW Fact Book, citing UBINIG, Trafficking in Women and Children: The Cases of Bangladesh, 1995, citing women's groups in Nepal) * A report of the Central Advisory Committee on Child Prostitution, published in May 1994 says that 12 to 15% of the prostitutes in Mumbai, Delhi, Madras, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Bangalore are children. It is estimated that 30% of the prostitutes in these cities are aged below 20 and nearly half of them had become commercial sex workers when they were minors. 86% of the prostitutes come from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Conservative estimates put the number of children in India suffering commercial sex abuse at 300,000. ("The Young and the Damned", The Week, 4 August 1996, reprinted in ECPAT Bulletin, July 1996) * Dr. I.S. Gilada, General Secretary of the Indian Health Organisation(IHO), estimated in various studies conducted between 1985 and 1994 that there were between 70,000 and 100,000 prostitutes in Bombay, 100,000 in Calcutta, 40,000 in Delhi, 40,000 in Pune, and 13,000 in Nagpur. (Human Rights Watch/Asia, Rape and Profit, June 1995) ADULT STATISTICS * There are over 200,000 Nepalese prostitutes. (ILO-IPEC, Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999) * 200,000 to over 250,000 Nepalese women and girls are already in Indian brothels. (CATW Fact Book, citing Soma Wadhwa, "For sale childhood", Outlook, 1998) * 20%-30% of commercial sex workers in India have been trafficked from Nepal. (World Vision, David Westwood, Child Trafficking in Asia, 1998) * The Indian Social Welfare Board estimates that there are 500,000 foreign prostitutes in India of which 1% are from Bangladesh. And 2.7% of prostitutes in Calcutta alone are from Bangladesh. (CATW Fact Book, citing CEDAW Report: Bangladesh, 1 April 1997) * 30,000 Bangladeshi women are in the brothels of Calcutta, India. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Human Smuggling from Bangladesh at alarming level", Reuters, 26 May 1997) * 2.5% of prostitutes in India are Nepalese, and 2.7% are Bangladeshi. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Devadasi System Continues to Legitimise Prostitution: The Devadasi Tradition and Prostitution", Times of India, 4 December 1997) * 160,000 Nepalese women are held in India's brothels. (CATW Fact Book, citing SANLAAP India, Indrani Sinha, "Paper on Globalization & Human Rights") * At least 2,000 women are in prostitution along the Baina beachfront in Goa. (CATW Fact Book, citing Frederick Moronha, India Abroad News Service, 9 August 1997) * Every day, about 200 girls and women in India enter prostitution, 80% of them against their will. (CATW Fact Book, citing CEDPA and PRIDE, "Devadasi System Continues to Legitimise Prostitution: The Devadasi Tradition and Prostitution", Times of India, 4 December 1997) * The brothels of India hold between 100,000 and 160,000 Nepalese women and girls. (CATW Fact Book, citing Gustavo Capdevila, IPS, 2 April 1997, citing Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Report on Violence Against Women) * There are more than 100,000 women in prostitution in Bombay, Asia's largest sex industry centre. (CATW Fact Book, citing Robert I. Freidman, "India's Shame: Sexual Slavery and Political Corruption Are Leading to an AIDS Catastrophe", The Nation, 8 April 1996) * There are an estimated 50,000 devadasis in the country. (ECPAT Newsletter, No.15, January 1996) * India, along with Thailand and the Philippines, has 1.3 million children in its sex-trade centres. (CATW Fact Book, citing Soma Wadhwa, "For Sale: Childhood", Outlook, 1998) * Nepalese social workers estimate that the number of Nepalese girls and women now working in Indian brothels at about 200,000 and believe that between 5,000 and 7,000 new Nepalese end up in Indian brothels every year. (Human Rights Watch/Asia, Rape and Profit, June 1995) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Nepalese girls as young as 11, 12, 13 years old have been trafficked into India to work as prostitutes. (Will Dunham, "U.S. grapples with 'modern-day slavery'", 1 September 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000) * In India, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu are considered "high supply zones" for women in prostitution. Bijapur, Belgaum and Kolhapur are common districts from which women migrate to the big cities, as part of an organised trafficking network. (CATW Fact Book, citing Meena Menon, "Women in India's Trafficking Belt", 30 March 1998, citing the Central Social Welfare Board) * Human Rights Watch reported that the practice of dedicating or marrying young, pre-pubescent girls to a Hindu deity or temple as servants of god, devadasis, continue in several southern states, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Devadasis may not marry. They are taken from their families and are required to provide sexual services to priests and high caste Hindus. Reportedly, many eventually are sold to urban brothels. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * India is one of the favoured destinations of paedophile sex tourists from Europe and the United States. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Global law to punish sex tourists sought by Britain and EU", The Indian Express, 21 November 1997) *The trafficking of girls from Nepal into India for the purpose of prostitution is probably the busiest 'slave traffic' of its kind anywhere in the world. (CATW Fact Book, citing Tim McGirk, "Nepal's Lost Daughters", 27 January 1997) * India's child sex industry is the second largest in the world after the Philippines. (ECPAT, "Six Foreigners Charged in India Child Sex Case", The Nation, 18 October 1996, reprinted in ECPAT Bulletin, October 1996) * There could be a few hundred thousand Bangladeshi girls in various houses of prostitution in India. (CWA, Brother Jarlath de Souza, "Trafficking in Children: Bangladesh", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 12, No. 3, July - September 1996) * Most child prostitutes in the cities hail from the surrounding rural areas, although considerable numbers are trafficked over longer distances. (UNICEF India, Richard Young, "Understanding Underlying Factors", Child Workers in Asia, January-June 1996) * Nepal appears to be the most significant, identifiable source of child prostitutes for Indian brothels. Thousands of Nepalese females under the age of 20 have been identified in India by various studies. (UNICEF India, Richard Young, "Understanding Underlying Factors", Child Workers in Asia, January-June 1996) * In 1994, however, the Government of India estimated that 30%of all prostitutes in six major cities were below the age of 20 and that almost 40% of these prostitutes entered the profession before they were 18 years of age. Anecdotal evidence provided by social workers in Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi supports these figures. The existence of a stable child population among the prostitutes of these cities seems to be a certainty. (UNICEF India, Richard Young, "Understanding Underlying Factors", Child Workers in Asia, January-June 1996) * Of 1,000 red-light districts all over India, prostitutes are mostly minors often from Nepal and Bangladesh. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) * Districts bordering Maharashtra and Karnataka, known as the 'devadasi belt', have trafficking structures operating at various levels. Many are devadasis dedicated into prostitution for the goddess Yellamma. In one Karnataka brothel, all 15 girls are devadasis. (CATW Fact Book, citing Meena Menon, "The Unknown Faces") Indonesia NATIONAL STATISTICS * An initial moderate estimate of the prevalence of child prostitution in Indonesia is that around 30% of the total sex workers in the country are aged under 18 years. This constitutes around 40,000 to over 150,000 based on different estimates of the number of sex workers. (UNICEF Indonesia, Mohammad Farid, "Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Indonesia", Child Workers in Asia, January-March 2000) * Official statistics reported 75,106 registered prostitutes in 1999, up from 72,000 in 1995. However, NGO's estimate that there are as many as 1.3 million prostitutes in the country, 30% of which may be under 16 years of age. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * A university professor estimates that about 150,000 children enter prostitution each year. The prevalence of child prostitutes appears to vary by region. According to a recent NGO study, about 15% of the prostitutes in parts of Central Java were between 16 and 20 years old. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * There are at least 650,000 prostitutes in Indonesia. In 1998, there were 150,000 registered prostitutes compared to 72,000 in 1995, 30% are children. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Indonesian economic crisis boosts prostitution", Reuters, 26 July 1998, citing Mohammad Farid of Yogyakarta Free Children Society) * Indonesia's Ministry of Social Affairs said 60% of 71,281 registered prostitutes are aged 15 -20. (ECPAT, "Sex Tourism and the Travel Industry", Travel Trade, Gazette Asia, 25-31 October 1996, reprinted in ECPAT Bulletin, October 1996) * A 1992 survey showed that one out of 10 prostituted persons was under 17, and that one out of five of those older than that age said they took up prostitution before they reached 17. (CATW Fact Book, citing Dario Agnote, "Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says" Kyodo News, 18 August 1998) LOCAL STATISTICS * There were about 13,000 street children in Jakarta. Medan, Bandung, Surabaya, Makassar (Ujung Pandang), and Yogyakarta are other cities with substantial populations of street children. Of the 1,600 street children living in Yogyakarta, about 25% are girls. Almost all of them were victims of sexual abuse or were engaged in prostitution. Another NGO survey suggests that there are at least 100,000 street children and 6 million abandoned children in the country. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * In a seminar held in Batam in August, researchers reported that 50% of more than 1,800 sex workers that they surveyed in 1998 were younger than 18 years old. More recent estimates suggest that as many as 6,000 sex workers in Batam are under age 18. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * 1,500 underage prostitutes are working in the province of Sumatra alone. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998) * 30% of the girls in Semarang, Indonesia, who are homeless, are forced into prostitution for survival. (CATW Fact Book, citing Nicholas D. Kristof "Asian Crisis Deals Setbacks to Women", citing a University Diponegoro study) ADULT STATISTICS * There were 65,582 registered prostitutes in 1994. The highest estimate is 500,000 women in prostitution. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) * There are between 140,000 and 230,000 prostituted persons in Indonesia according to 1993-1994 estimates. Prostituted persons are mainly adult women, but there are also male, transvestite and child prostitutes, both girls and boys. (CATW Fact Book, citing ILO, Dario Agnote, "Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says" Kyodo News, 18 August 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * In September the ILO, in collaboration with the University of Indonesia's department of social welfare, published a preliminary study of trafficking trends in Jakarta, Batam (Sumatra), Medan (Sumatra), and Bali, which found that many girls entering prostitution after failed marriages that they had entered into when they were as young as 10 to 14. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Child prostitution and other sexual abuses occur, but there is no data available for it. Instances of families in rural areas of Java and Sumatra being forced by economic circumstances to 'sell' their daughters to local men continued to be reported. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * In June, police uncovered a syndicate involved in trafficking young women, many below 18, to work in brothels on islands in Riau province, near Singapore. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * NGOs and the media report that women and girls are trafficked to Malaysia, Taiwan, and Japan as sex workers. In addition some government officials believe that women are trafficked as prostitutes to Saudi Arabia. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * In mid-1997 hundreds of Indonesian women, most under 20 years of age, were in prostitution in Saudi Arabia. (CATW Fact Book, citing Mien Sugandhi, Minister for Women's Affairs, "Hundreds of RI's Women Believed To Work As Prostitutes in Saudi Arabia", Kompas, 7 February 1997) * There has been increasing child prostitution due to the economic crisis. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998) Iran - Iraq GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Six years of UN economic sanctions against Iraq has led to an increase in prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Effectiveness of Iraq sanctions not clear", Dallas Morning News, 29 September 1997) * In Greece, more than 40% of the minors in prostitution are from neighbouring or regional countries, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Albania and Iraq which are suffering from conflicts and lack of social cohesion. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) Ireland ADULT STATISTICS * 4 of the male prostitutes surveyed were introduced to prostitution at age 13, most were 14-19. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Guys go on heroin, then on the game", Irish Times, 30 July 1997) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Sex traffickers are using Dublin as a stepping stone to provide prostitutes across the Irish Sea in England. From Dublin, the sex trafficker uses the free movement to the south and Britain to fill the demand for vice girls in London, Birmingham and Manchester. ("Sex Traffickers Use Foreign Firms to Trap Girls" Sunday Mirror, 24 September 2000) * Most male prostitutes come from Dublin, a few from Italy, and others from Britain and Eastern Europe. (CATW Fact Book, citing Kevin O'Sullivan, "Male prostitution study shows link with drugs", Irish Times, 30 July 1997, citing GMHP, The Men in Prostitution) * Child prostitution is increasing in Dublin. Ireland's increasing numbers of homeless youth are forcing many into prostitution due to their circumstances. (CATW Fact Book, citing Michael Kennelly, "Hungry children call on Garda for food, shelter", Irish Times, 27 March 1997) Israel ADULT STATISTICS * In Israel, a study on CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children) shows that there is an ongoing and systemic commercial sexual exploitation of minors, both girls and boys. Even the most cautious estimates indicate many hundreds of minors are involved each year. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * Israel Women's Network, a NGO, estimates that 70% of prostituted women in Tel Aviv, come from the former Soviet Republics, and around 1,000 women are brought into Israel illegally each year. A prison spokeswoman said, as many as 100 women may be waiting for deportation in Neve Tirza women's prison near Tel Aviv. (CATW Fact Book, citing Elisabeth Eaves, "Israel not the promised land for Russian sex slaves", Reuters, 23 August 1998) * There are over 1,000 women in prostitution in Tel Aviv. (CATW Fact Book, citing CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Though it is acknowledged that young girls are not involved, the Public Inquiry Committee concedes that the 'imports' to Israel include 16-17 year old adolescent girls." (ECPAT, CSEC Database citing the Public Inquiry Committee, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Children's rights activists estimate that there may be several hundred child prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * There are no official numbers regarding the extent of prostitution and the traffic of women in Israel, but there is a general consensus that it is becoming more prevalent. (CATW Fact Book, citing CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997) * There has been a steady increase in the numbers of foreign women involved in prostitution, 95% of the cases were from the former USSR. (CATW Fact Book, citing CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997) * There is a growing market for child-pornography in Israel. It is not produced in Israel, but is imported and sold freely in response to growing demand. (CATW Fact Book, citing CEDAW Report, 8 April 1997) Italy NATIONAL STATISTICS * Official Italian statistics reveal that there are approximately 900 child prostitutes in Italy coming from Albania. (CRCA, The Vicious Circle, 2000) * A government-authorized study found 1,880-2,500 minors in prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * There were 1,880 to 2,500 minors working as street prostitutes, of whom 1,500 to 2,300 were trafficked illegal immigrants, predominantly Albanians, and some Nigerians. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * More than 8,000 Albanian prostitutes are found in Italy, and above 30% of them are under 18 years. (CATW Fact Book, citing G.J. Koja, "8000 Albanian Girls Work as Prostitutes in Italy", HURINet, 25 July 1998) ADULT STATISTICS * More than a half of 50-70,000 prostitutes working in Italy are foreigners. (Rory Carrol, "Italy: Auctions for sex: Europe's thriving slavery industry", Guardian, 23 May 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, July 2000) * 75-80% of the women trafficked for prostitution in Italy are in street prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing Migrant Information Programme, "Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation to Italy", IOM, June 1996) * In Milan, 80% of street prostitutes are foreigners. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking of Women to the European Union", European Conference on Trafficking in Women, June 1996) * Of the 19,000-25,000 foreign prostitutes in Italy, around 2,000 are trafficked. (CATW Fact Book, citing Migrant Information Programme, "Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation to Italy", IOM, June 1996) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * According to police statistics in 1999, there were 292 cases of child prostitution involving 202 victims. There were 33 cases of child pornography and 52 cases of the possession of child pornography. Nine cases of organising child sex-tourism were reported. These numbers are probably conservative estimates. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Newspapers report several instances of child pornography possession cases in Italy. Famously, in October 2000 Italian authorities raided 600 homes where suspects were arrested for possession of child pornography. One-month later, Italian prosecutors charged 1,491 Italians and other nationals with offering or downloading child pornography on the Internet. In both instances, most of the child pornography is thought to have come from Russia. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Relief agencies warned that criminal gangs were trying to abduct young girls from Kosovo and traffic them to Italy and Greece for forced prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Most male prostitutes in Ireland come from Dublin, a few from Italy, and others from Britain and Eastern Europe. (CATW Fact Book, citing Kevin O'Sullivan, "Male prostitution study shows link with drugs", Irish Times, 30 July 1997, citing GMHP, The Men in Prostitution) * In street prostitution, the largest group of migrant women are Nigerians, followed by Albanians, Russian and Ukrainian women, the rest are Latin Americans and transsexuals. Two types of pimps control street prostitution: The first are the same nationality as the women and exploit the women; the other is a mafia organisation. (CATW Fact Book, citing Licia Brussa, "Transnational AIDS/STD Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe", TAMPEP, 1996) * Foreign women in 'call girl' prostitution in Italy are from Poland, Russia, Colombia and Argentina and to a lesser extent from Brazil, Hungary, Romania and the Philippines. (CATW Fact Book, citing Migrant Information Programme, "Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation to Italy", IOM, June 1996) Jamaica NATIONAL STATISTICS * A third of the women interviewed in a study of adult female prostitutes stated that they had been abused through prostitution before their 18th birthday. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child prostitution is a significant problem. This is particularly true in heavily touristed areas such as Montego Bay. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Children are often entering prostitution in order to support families. In the sex industry in Jamaica, girls as young as 12 and boys as young as 9 are involved in sex tourism and street sex trade. Sometimes young adolescent girls from poor communities are involved in sex in exchange for food and school fees. (ECPAT International) Japan NATIONAL STATISTICS * According to National Police Agency statistics, 40% of the over 3,000 pornographic Internet sites based in Japan contained images of minors. In 1998, INTERPOL estimated that 80% of Internet sites with child pornography originate in Japan. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * One third of all reported cases of prostitution are teenagers. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Tokyo cracks down on teenage prostitution 'clubs'", Reuters, 13 August 1997, citing 1996 National Police Agency Survey) ADULT STATISTICS * Every year, over 100,000 women, mostly Filipinos and Thais, are sexually exploited in the sex industry all over Japan. (Committee for a Safe Society, Matsui Yayori, Eliminating Trafficking in Asian Women, www.alternatives.com) * There are more than 150,000 foreign women in prostitution in Japan, more than a half are Filipinos and 40% are Thai. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Newsletter Volume 1.2, Winter 1998) * 150,000 Filipina women have been trafficked into prostitution in Japan. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Open sale of little girls at Tanbazar brothel", Daily Star, 2 July 1998, citing BNWLA) * Japan is a destination for trafficking in women from Philippines and Thailand for purposes of sexual exploitation. Reliable statistics on the number and origin of women trafficked to the country is unavailable, but according to the Ministry of Justice 2.5 % of the 15,823 women deported in 1997 were prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * According to the Government White Paper on Youth, there were an estimated 4,912 prostitutes in 1997. (International Save the Children Alliance, Children's Rights: Reality or Rhetoric?, 1999) * 1,000 illegal pornographic tapes are produced in Japan each month - 35 new titles a day. (CATW Fact Book, citing Mitsuhiro Shimamura and Joseph Coleman, "Pornography Easy to Find in Japan", AP, August 1997) * One 'sex zone' in Tokyo, only 0.34 sq. km., has 3,500 sex facilities: strip theatres, peep shows, 'soaplands,' 'lover's banks,' porno shops, telephone clubs, karaoke bars, clubs, etc. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) * 80% of labour migration in Sri Lanka in 1994 was of women workers. Job trainees in Korea and Japan have disappeared into underground exploitation, such as prostitution. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The form of child prostitution differs from that found in other East Asian countries since poverty is not an overriding factor. Child pornography is a notable problem. It is commonly cited that 80% of available child pornography is produced in Japan. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Girls are lured from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and south China for the sex markets in Thailand or to be diverted to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. ("Human Trafficking: Gangs make Thailand a regional hub", Bangkok Post, 6 September 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000) * NGOs and the media report that Indonesian women and girls are trafficked to Malaysia, Taiwan, and Japan as sex workers. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Malaysian women are trafficked for sexual purposes mostly to Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but also to Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * In 1998, Japan was the world's biggest producer of child pornography and the Parliament had recently refused to pass a law banning the production of child pornography, citing "business reasons." (CATW Fact Book, citing Poona Antaseeda, "Expert urges global law to end child pornography on the Internet", Bangkok Post, 3 June 1998, citing ECPAT) * Teenage prostitution is rising. (SPARC Newsletter, March 1997) * The sex industry accounts for 1% of the Gross National Product and equals the defense budget. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) Jordan - Kazakhstan GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * In Greece, more than 40% of the minors in prostitution are from neighbouring or regional countries, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Albania and Iraq which are suffering from conflicts and lack of social cohesion. (ECPAT International, A Step Forward, 1999) * Child prostitution exists. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour in Kazakhstan, September 1997) Kenya LOCAL STATISTICS * A recent official study in Nyanza province found that Kisumu city had 300 male and female child prostitutes as young as eight years old. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * According to a study carried out in seven districts in Kenya in 1997 by the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, child prostitution is widely practiced in big towns such as Nairobi, and tourist spots like Mombasa, Kiambi, Kisumu, Kajiado and Malindi. According to the survey, some of the child victims were as young as 11 year of age and Mombasa and Malindi were found to have the highest number of underage children selling sex. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * A large number of underage children were active in the sex industry. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * Child prostitution is a major problem in Nairobi and Mombasa, often connected with the sex tourism. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights observed that child prostitution is common in many parts of Kenya. (UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding observations on Kenya, 1993) Kiribati - Korea, Dem. People's Republic - Korea, Rep. ADULT STATISTICS * Around the U.S. military bases, there are 18,000 registered and 9,000 unregistered prostitutes. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) * According to the Korean country report to the conference, it is estimated that approximately 18,000 prostitutes are serving 43,000 U.S. Army personnel stationed throughout Korea at more than 40 bases. (CATW, Military Prostitution In Korea, Coalition Report, 1993) * Officials from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration report that they estimate the number of Filipinos in the entertainment industry in Korea to be around 1,000, while those prostituted around the U.S. military bases to number 600. The officials attest that the women recruited are very young and mostly from Central Luzon, specifically the Pinatubo area. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Jean Enriquez, "Filipinos in Prostitution around U.S. Military Bases in Korea") GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Sri Lankan job trainees in Korea and Japan have disappeared into underground exploitation, such as prostitution. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) Kosovo ADULT STATISTICS * 255 illegal immigrants from Albania and Kosovo were trafficked for prostitution during December 1997. (CATW Fact Book, citing "British note Albanian refugee smuggling", UPI, 7 April 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The increasing number of foreign soldiers and aid workers in Kosovo has created a market for prostitution with girls as young as 16 years old trafficked from Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania. (Andrew Gray, "Kosovo sex trade booms due to foreigners", Reuters, 24 May 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive) * According to the IOM, young women from eastern Europe and ex-Soviet republics were lured to the province with the promise of jobs in catering or entertainment, and then forced to work in the sex trade. (Andrew Gray, "Kosovo sex trade booms due to foreigners", Reuters, 24 May 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive) * Relief agencies warned that criminal gangs were trying to abduct young girls from the province and traffic them to Italy and Greece for forced prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Kuwait - Kyrgyzstan GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Kyrgyzstan is a country of origin and transit for trafficking in persons. Kyrgyz men, women, and children are trafficked to Russia, Turkey, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates, mostly for prostitution (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * There is a growing problem with trafficking in women and girls, mostly to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, for the purpose of forced prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Laos NATIONAL STATISTICS * In 1996, there were almost 200,000 foreign children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia who had been trafficked in to Thailand for prostitution and work at construction sites and sweatshops. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking of children on the rise", Bangkok Post, 22 July 1998, citing IPSR) ADULT STATISTICS * 80,000 women and children have been trafficked to Thailand for prostitution, since 1990. The highest numbers are from Burma, followed by the Yunnan province of China, and Laos. (ILO-IPEC, Combating Trafficking in Children for Labour Exploitation in the Mekong Sub-region, October 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There are reports that children from Laos are used for sexual exploitation and slavery abroad. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * According to domestic NGOs, girls between the ages of 12 and 18 are trafficked from Burma, Southern China, and Laos to work in the commercial sex industry. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * The government is increasingly concerned about Laos children being lured for sexual exploitation in other countries. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Children are trafficked from Laos to Thailand for prostitution and sweatshop work. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour: Trends and Challenges in Asia, August 1997) Latvia NATIONAL STATISTICS * Evidence suggests that child prostitution is widespread. An estimated 12 to 15% of prostitutes are considered juveniles, that is, between the ages of 8 and 18. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * The police in Riga stated that during the second part of 1995 they had observed a 40-50% increase in prostitution among minors. (ECPAT International, Helena Karlen and Christene Hagnen, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Some Eastern European Countries, March 1996) ADULT STATISTICS * Although there is no official estimate of the number of prostitutes, unofficial figures suggest that 10,000 to 15,000 persons work as prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Both adult and child prostitution are widespread, often linked to organised crime. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Prostitution in Riga is increasing. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * The country is primarily a source or transit country rather than a destination. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Lebanon - Lesotho - Liberia - Libya - Liechtenstein - Lithuania LOCAL STATISTICS * In Lithuania, it seems that 20 to 50% of the prostitutes are minors. Some children (some of them are about 11 or 12 years) work as prostitutes in brothels houses, and some children living in children's residence (some of them are about 10 and 12 years old were used in pornography. (A qui profite le crime ? Enquête sur l'exploitation sexuelle de nos enfants. UNICEF novembre 2001) * There are an estimated 450 child prostitutes in Vilnius. (ECPAT Bulletin, citing Guardian, August 1996) * In the capital city, representatives of local authorities believe that there are about 1,000 prostitute in the city and that 30% of them are minors. (ECPAT International, Helena Karlen and Christene Hagnen, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Some Eastern European Countries, March 1996) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There are no specific criminal codes to prevent child pornography, sex abuse or sex tourism. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * A number of women, some underage, have been enticed or forced into prostitution and sold abroad by organised crime figures. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Trafficking in women for the purpose of forced prostitution is a problem. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Child prostitution and child pornography is a problem. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) Luxembourg - Madagascar GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * The law prohibits trafficking; however, there were reports that women and girls were trafficked to the nearby islands of Reunion and Mauritius for prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its concern over the insufficient measures taken to prevent and combat the incitement to child pornography as well as prostitution involving children living and/or working on the streets, particularly children who are victimised by tourists. (UN CRC, Concluding observations on Madagascar, 1994) Malawi - Malaysia NATIONAL STATISTICS * In 1998, the Minister of National Unity and Social Development stated that 150 to 160 underage girls are detained each year for involvement in immoral activities and sent to rehabilitation centres. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) LOCAL STATISTICS * There are 8,000-10,000 women in prostitution in Kuala Lumpur. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) ADULT STATISTICS * An ILO study estimated that there were roughly 40,000 to 140,000 prostitutes in 1998. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Malaysia is a source, transit, and destination country for trafficking in women and girls for sexual exploitation. In 1998, the Deputy Home Minister stated that 2,250 foreign prostitutes had been arrested in Malaysia. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * There are 43,000 to 142,000 or more prostituted persons in Malaysia. Prostituted persons are mainly adult women, but there are also male, transvestite and child prostitutes, both girls and boys. (CATW Fact Book, citing Dario Agnote "Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says", Kyodo News, 18 August 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Girls are lured from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and south China for the sex markets in Thailand or to be diverted to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. ("Human Trafficking: Gangs make Thailand a regional hub", Bangkok Post, 6 September 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, September 2000) * Police believe that the overwhelming number of prostitutes in the country are foreigners from Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, and China. These women often work as karaoke hostesses, guest relations officers, and masseuses. Russian women work in smaller numbers as prostitutes. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Malaysian women are trafficked for sexual purposes mostly to Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but also to Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Child prostitution exists in the country. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Although statistics are not available, the incidence of child prostitution appears to have decreased in recent years. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998) * Studies show that more than a half of those 'rescued'' from various sex establishments were under age 18. (CATW Fact Book, citing Dario Agnote, "Sex trade key part of S.E. Asian economies, study says", Kyodo News, 18 August 1998) * Recreation business, such as entertainment and fitness clubs, are the main channels for prostitution. Almost every town has a red-light district. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) * Malaysia is a destination for various nations' sex tours. (CATW-Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific, 1996) * Thai and Filipino girls are trafficked into Malaysia for prostitution. (Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Action, The Flesh Trade Report, 1995-1996) Maldives - Mali GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * One NGO "Association Pour le Progrès et de la Défense des Droits des Femmes Mallienne"(APDF) reports that prostitution is on the increase in Mali and the reason is basically economic as a result of Structural Adjustment Programmes that has exacerbated the poverty in Mali. The report also says that the prostitutes are very young ranging in age from 14 to 40 years old. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) Malta - Marshall Islands - Mauritania GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There are reports of foreign paedophiles at work and an increase in the boy victims of prostitution. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) Mauritius GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * In October the new Minister of Women's Rights, Child Development, and Family Welfare released a 1998 study on the sexual exploitation of children that the previous government had withheld. Although it did not provide the number of child prostitutes, the study reported that children enter into prostitution as early as age 13; their clientele included industrialists, professionals, police officers, parliamentarians, and ministers. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * There were reports from the nearby island of Madagascar that women and children were trafficked to the islands of Reunion and Mauritius for prostitution. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Although child prostitution is invisible, it is rampant. The level of child prostitution is highest in tourist areas. (Save the Children-Mauritius and Association des Juristes Mauriciens, A child in need is a friend of mine, submission to the UN CRC, September-October 1996) * There is a reported rise in child prostitution. (UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding observations on Mauritius, 1995) Mexico NATIONAL STATISTICS * A report by the Center for Research and Advanced Study in Social Anthropology counted 5,000 minors, 90% of them female, working as prostitutes or subjects of pornography. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Nearly 100 children and teenagers a month fall into the hands of the child prostitution networks, which are mafias or organised crime syndicates. (CATW Fact Book, citing Elena Azola and Diego Cevallos, "Sterile at Age 12, AIDS at 14", IPS, 10 February 1998) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There have been isolated cases of organised trafficking of persons for the purpose of forced prostitution, sexual services and domestic servitude. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * 16 and 17-year-old girls from Central America are being trafficked to Chips, Mexico for prostitution. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Women and Low Intensity Warfare", SIPAZ Report, January 1998) * The United Nations lists Mexico as the number one center for the supply of young children to North America. The majority are sent to international paedophile organisations. Most of the children over 12 end up as prostitutes. (CATW Fact Book, citing Allan Hall, The Scotsman, 25 August 1998) * Mexico is one of the favoured destinations of paedophile sex tourists from Europe and the United States. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Global law to punish sex tourists sought by Britain and EU", The Indian Express, 21 November 1997) * Child victims of prostitution are present in large numbers. (US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children, 1996) * In 1996, U.S. Postal Service announced that Mexico City was one of the leading producers of child pornography videos. (CATW Fact Book, citing Diego Cevallos, "Sterile at Age 12, AIDS at 14", IPS, 10 February 1998) * Well-organised networks in the Cuauhtemoc Zone, which has the highest concentration of sex trade in the country have a system of exploitation, where poor adolescents are married and then convinced to work to pay off some exceptionally incurred debts. (ECPAT International) Micronesia - Moldova GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Police cracked a network that was smuggling prostitutes from Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania via Albania to Italy. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Monaco - Mongolia GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child prostitution, especially procuring and offering of child prostitution. (ILO-IPEC, Country Paper: Mongolia, September 1999) * The law does not specifically prohibit trafficking in persons and there is evidence that Mongolian women and teenagers are working in the sex trade in Asia and Eastern Europe. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Morocco NATIONAL STATISTICS * Teenage prostitution in urban centers has been estimated in the tens of thousands by NGO activists. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * There is also internal trafficking of women and children; girls are trafficked primarily for domestic servitude and women are trafficked for sexual exploitation. (US Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001) * Forced prostitution is prevalent, particularly in cities with large numbers of tourists, as well as near towns with large military installations. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Forced prostitution involving Moroccans also occurs abroad. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) Mozambique GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS * Child prostitution appears to be most prevalent in Maputo and Beira, although it may also exist in rural areas. Child prostitution reportedly is growing in the Maputo, Beira, and Nacala areas, which have highly mobile populations and a large number of transport workers. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001) * According to research carried out by Terre des Hommes - Mozambique, child prostitution in particular is on the increase. (ECPAT, CSEC Database, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/projects/monitoring/online_database/index.asp) * Authorities in several provinces took steps to combat child prostitution; however, sexual abuse and exploitation of children below the age of 15 continues. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000) * Child prostitution exists in many parts of country. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998) Namibia - Nauru - Nepal NATIONAL STATISTICS * In Nepal, between 5,000 and 7,000 girls are believed to be trafficked every year across the border to neighbouring countries. (UNICEF, Progress of Nations 2000, New York, 2000) * About 200,000 girls are involved in prostitution. Among them, 25,000 are living in Kathmandu and the rest are supposed to be living in big cities of India. (ILO-IPEC, Country Paper: Nepal, September 1999)   * A survey by the Central Social Welfare Board indicated that the population of Nepalese women and child victims of commercial sexual exploitation in Indian brothels would be between 70,000 to 100,000 of which 30% were below 18 years. (ILO-IPEC, Country Report: Nepal, October 1998)   * Every year around 10,000 Nepalese girls, most between the age of nine and 16, are sold to brothels in India. (CATW Fact Book, citing Tim McGirk, "Nepal's Lost Daughters", 27 January 1997) * 20% of 25,000 commercial sex workers are below 16 years. (ILO, Fighting Child Labour at National Level: Action in Nepal, citing UNICEF) LOCAL STATISTICS * Half of 100,000 girl prostitutes between 10-14 in Bombay are from Nepal and are kept in brothels against their will. (Penelope Saunders, "Sexual Trafficking and Forced Prostitution of Children", 29 October 1998) * In Bombay, India, at least half of the city's 100,000 prostitutes are believed to be Nepalese girls. (ILO-IPEC, Country Report: Nepal, October 1998) * According to UNICEF there are 1,000 children in the sex trade in Kathmandu. (ILO-IPEC, Country Report: Nepal, October 1998) * A survey done in Kathmandu on 52 commercial sex workers by the Department of Research and Planning suggests that out of the total commercial sex workers surveyed, 13% were between 13-17 years. (ILO-IPEC, Country Report: Nepal, October 1998) * The number of Nepalese girls and women engaged in prostitution in Calcutta exceeds 27,000, in Delhi it is more than 21,000, in Gorakhpur it is 4,700 and in Banaras it is 3,480. (ILO-IPEC, Country Report: Nepal, October 1998) * Thousands of girls are trafficked to urban areas to practice prostitution. (Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Action, The Flesh Trade Report, 1995-1996) * About 45,000 Nepalese girls are in the brothels of Bombay and 40,000 in Calcutta. (CATW Fact Book, citing UBINIG, Trafficking in Women and Children: The Cases of Bangladesh, 1995, citing women's groups in Nepal) ADULT STATISTICS * 20%-30% of commercial sex workers in India have been trafficked from Nepal. (World Vision, David Westwood, Child Trafficking in Asia, 1998) * 2.5% of prostitutes in India are Nepalese. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Devadasi System Continues to Legitimise Prostitution: The Devadasi Tradition and Prostitution", Times of India, 4 December 1997) * 7,000 Nepalese women and girls are trafficked for prostitution to the Asia Pacific area. (CATW Fact Book, citing CATW-Asia Pacific and Philippine Women's Groups, 4th International Congress on AIDS in the Asia Pacific, 29 October 1997) * Approximately 50,000, or half of the women in prostitution in Bombay, are trafficked from Nepal. (CATW Fact Book, citing Robert I. Freidman, "India's Shame: Sexual Slavery and Political Corruption Are Leading to an AIDS Catastrophe", The Nation, 8 April 1996) * 5,000 Nepalese women are traff