Sex Tourism and How It Is Combated by Missionaries
- Interview with Fr Franco Cellano, Superior of the Consolata Missionaries in Kenya.
- Catholic Church teaching with regard to sexual abuse
- A ruinous and revolting 'octopus'.
- The "pleasure industry".
- Girls and boys in the sex market
- Interview with Marco Scarpati, president of End Child Prostitution Pornography and Trafficking ECPAT, Italy.
"41'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not lose his reward.
But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone hung round his neck. And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that can never be put out.]
And if your foot should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell
where their worm will never die nor their fire be put out. For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is a good thing, but if salt has become insipid, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.'" (Mark, 9,42-50).
Interview with Fr Franco Cellano,
Superior of the Consolata Missionaries in Kenya.
Kenya is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, caused by tribal and ethnic strife which began in 2007 with protests against election results. Unheard of brutalities have been committed, according to UNICEF in one day 19 women and children were burned alive. At least 350,000 citizens have been forced to leave their homes. Following attacks, fires and raids in which more than thousand people dead, whole villages have been abandoned. UNICEF has denounced ever more frequent raping of women and girls who are not safe even in the many refugee camps all over the country in which the homeless shelter. Police protection these camps is minimum. The Kenyan government asked UNICEF to coordinate humanitarian operations with regards medical care, food supplies, education and protection of vulnerable categories. UNICEF assistance in about 300 camps in different parts of the country, includes the distribution of UNIMIX infant food and rations for 70% of about 80,000 children under five; distribution of chlorine pills to ensure clean water (80,000 in Nairobi alone); installation of prefab latrines and clean water cisterns. With regard to security, UNICEF and other partner organisation are making a census of minors in vulnerable conditions and organising protection measures for evacuated women and children.
Despite this scenario, Kenya is still one of the most popular destinations for western sex tourists. Below is a telephone interview with Fr Franco Cellano, Superior of the thirty one Consolata Missions in Kenya. Fides took some few days to get hold of the priest who is continually on the road visiting refugee camps and coordinating assistance.
Father, you are very familiar with Kenya, can you tell us something about the situation with regard to the phenomenon of sex tourism?
I was part of an Italian Committee which undertook a three year study, in particular, the situation in coastal cities like Malindi, Lamu, Mombasa. It emerged that at least 30,000 Kenyan minors mainly little girls — most of them solicited by their parents, — were used for adult sexual activity. From the same study it emerged that 38% of the sexual abuse involved Kenyans and foreign tourists as follows 18% Italian, 14% German, 12% Swiss, 8% French.
What is the situation today?
Since 2000 the phenomenon has become consistent involving situations of hardship, marginalisation and poverty. In recent years, western sex tourists who used to travel to Asia, have begun to opt for Africa and Kenya is one of the most popular destinations.
I would go as far as to say there is a boom in sex tourism in Nairobi, involving young homosexuals in need of money to pay studies or training for a job. The aim of these young males is not pleasure, since here respect for ancestors is an important part of the culture; they do it to make 30,000, 40, 000, 50,000 shillings to pay for school or training.
The phenomenon in general is growing everywhere. Another relatively new aspect is that western women come here to use young African men. This happens in Malindi, Mombasa, and is now appearing to Nairobi.
What is the Kenyan government doing about it?
A Kenyan law passed in 1990 protect the rights of children, is hardly enforced. The same is true of a law passed in 2003 on penal punishment for persons who organise prostitution. However in these cases the responsibility is also of the highly corrupt local police force which hardly ever intervenes.
Is the phenomenon organised?
Behind the phenomenon there certainly exist organisations which force very young girls into the racket, but the girls are good at hiding quickly and becoming invisible.
How do you go about evangelising and at the same time combating this evil?
Our missionary congregation is one of those which have been here longest. And, as you know, we now have 31 Consolata Missions in Kenya. As we evangelise, we also promote respect for human rights, the right to a home, a job, adequate medical care. Besides pastoral activity some of the 14 parishes we serve are actively involved in combating the phenomenon. But generally speaking due to so much poverty and need it is very difficult to persuade people to desist.
Before we end our conversation I must ask you about the humanitarian crisis in Kenya.
In recent months the local Catholic community has worked solidly and silently assisting at least 350,000 homeless people. We, 63 different religious communities, have worked together carrying on our apostolate and evangelisation while providing assistance and working to promote reconciliation and peace. All I can say is that the people are still too frightened to return to their villages and I would say that formalism on the part of international organisations in this situation is not very helpful. I actually had a personal 'arguement' with the local workers of the Red Cross organisation which, with UNICEF — in agreement with the government of Kenya — is responsible for dealing with the humanitarian crisis.
Some say that after so many years these international organisations are no more than "bureaucratic band wagons" . . .
I would agree. Homeless families forced out of their homes cannot wait for two months for the Red Cross to deliver 2,000 survival kits (cooking utensils, a mattress, a blanket, mosquito net, a small some of money to start life again) so they can return to their villages. Two months have passed and the supplies have still not arrived. Passing time destroys the dignity of these innocent people mostly, women and children.
Catholic Church teaching with regard to sexual abuse
The Gaudium et Spes with regard to sexual abuse affirms at paragraph 27: " whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonour to the Creator.".
John Paul II in 2001, in his discourse to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, said: "at the dawn of this millennium, let us save man! Let us together, all of us, save humanity! It is up to the leaders of societies to safeguard the human race, ensuring that science is at the service of the human person, that people are never objects to be manipulated or to be bought and sold, that laws are never determined by commercial interests or by the selfish claims of minority groups".
John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, addresses the phenomenon, citing the Gospel story of the woman caught in adultery and he appeals to the responsibility of those who commit this sin, especially the man involved, who usually abandons the woman: "Jesus enters into the concrete and historical situation of women, a situation which is weighed down by the inheritance of sin. One of the ways in which this inheritance is expressed is habitual discrimination against women in favour of men. This inheritance is rooted within women too. From this point of view the episode of the woman "caught in adultery" (cf. Jn 8:3-11) is particularly eloquent. In the end Jesus says to her: "Do not sin again", but first he evokes an awareness of sin in the men who accuse her in order to stone her, thereby revealing his profound capacity to see human consciences and actions in their true light. Jesus seems to say to the accusers: Is not this woman, for all her sin, above all a confirmation of your own transgressions, of your "male" injustice, your misdeeds?
This truth is valid for the whole human race. The episode recorded in the Gospel of John is repeated in countless similar situations in every period of history. A woman is left alone, exposed to public opinion with "her sin", while behind "her" sin there lurks a man — a sinner, guilty "of the other's sin", indeed equally responsible for it. And yet his sin escapes notice, it is passed over in silence: he does not appear to be responsible for "the others' sin"! Sometimes, forgetting his own sin, he even makes himself the accuser, as in the case described. How often, in a similar way, the woman pays for her own sin (maybe it is she, in some cases, who is guilty of the "others' sin" — the sin of the man), but she alone pays and she pays all alone! How often is she abandoned with her pregnancy, when the man, the child's father, is unwilling to accept responsibility for it? And besides the many "unwed mothers" in our society, we also must consider all those who, as a result of various pressures, even on the part of the guilty man, very often "get rid of" the child before it is born. "They get rid of it": but at what price?
Public opinion today tries in various ways to "abolish" the evil of this sin. Normally a woman's conscience does not let her forget that she has taken the life of her own child, for she cannot destroy that readiness to accept life which marks her "ethos" from the "beginning" . . . Consequently each man must look within himself to see whether she who was entrusted to him as a sister in humanity, as a spouse, has not become in his heart an object of adultery; to see whether she who, in different ways, is the co-subject of his existence in the world, has not become for him an "object": an object of pleasure, of exploitation." (MD 14).
John Paul's post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia denounces the phenomenon, widespread in Asia mainly thanks to flourishing sex tourism: " Tourism also warrants special attention. Though a legitimate industry with its own cultural and educational values, tourism has in some cases a devastating influence upon the moral and physical landscape of many Asian countries, manifested in the degradation of young women and even children through prostitution"(n.7). " The Synod voiced special concern for women, whose situation remains a serious problem in Asia, where discrimination and violence against women is often found in the home, in the workplace and even within the legal system. Illiteracy is most widespread among women, and many are treated simply as commodities in prostitution, tourism and the entertainment industry" (n.34).
John Paul II again, in his Letter to Women 1995, expresses deep concern for the phenomenon of sexual violence against women: " Then too, when we look at one of the most sensitive aspects of the situation of women in the world, how can we not mention the long and degrading history, albeit often an "underground" history, of violence against women in the area of sexuality? At the threshold of the Third Millennium we cannot remain indifferent and resigned before this phenomenon. The time has come to condemn vigorously the types of sexual violence which frequently have women for their object and to pass laws which effectively defend them from such violence. Nor can we fail, in the name of the respect due to the human person, to condemn the widespread hedonistic and commercial culture which encourages the systematic exploitation of sexuality and corrupts even very young girls into letting their bodies be used for profit." (n.5).
John Paul II on the occasion of an the International Conference "Twenty-First Century Slavery — The Human Rights Dimension to Trafficking in Human Beings, addressed a letter on 15 May 2002to Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, then secretary for relations with states ". The Conference, held 15 and 16 May at the Pontifical Gregorian University, promoted by Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See and the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace and for Migrants. Representatives of 30 different countries were present. In the Letter the Pope wrote: " The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking offence against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights. Already the Second Vatican Council had pointed to "slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, and disgraceful working conditions where people are treated as instruments of gain rather than free and responsible persons" as "infamies" which "poison human society, debase their perpetrators" and constitute "a supreme dishonour to the Creator" (Gaudium et spes, n.27). Such situations are an affront to fundamental values which are shared by all cultures and peoples, values rooted in the very nature of the human person.
The alarming increase in the trade in human beings is one of the pressing political, social and economic problems associated with the process of globalization; it presents a serious threat to the security of individual nations and a question of international justice which cannot be deferred.
The present Conference reflects the growing international consensus that the issue of human trafficking must be addressed by promoting effective juridical instruments to halt this iniquitous trade, to punish those who profit from it, and to assist the reintegration of its victims. At the same time, the Conference offers a significant opportunity for sustained reflection on the complex human rights issues raised by trafficking. Who can deny that the victims of this crime are often the poorest and most defenceless members of the human family, the "least" of our brothers and sisters?
In particular, the sexual exploitation of women and children is a particularly repugnant aspect of this trade, and must be recognized as an intrinsic violation of human dignity and rights. The disturbing tendency to treat prostitution as a business or industry not only contributes to the trade in human beings, but is itself evidence of a growing tendency to detach freedom from the moral law and to reduce the rich mystery of human sexuality to a mere commodity. (…)".
John Paul II on the occasion of that same Conference, during the general audience in St Peter's Square on May 15, met a group of about 500 women rescued from the slavery of prostitution by an Italian association Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII. The Pope greeted the women assuring them of his spiritual closeness and prayers and he encouraged them to "continue confidently along the path to full freedom based on human dignity". With regard to prostitution the Catechism of the Catholic Church says this: " Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. the one who pays sins gravely against himself: he violates the chastity to which his Baptism pledged him and defiles his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Prostitution is a social scourge. It usually involves women, but also men, children, and adolescents (The latter two cases involve the added sin of scandal.). While it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offense can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure." (n.2355).
In 2004 "Tourism at the Service of Bringing People Together " was the theme of the 6th World Congress on Pastoral Care of Tourism organised by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, in collaboration with the Catholic Commission for Tourism of the Thai Bishops' Conference, and held 5 to 8 July, in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Conference's final statement the participants affirmed: Tourism, which has now become a social and economic phenomenon of global dimensions, should contribute in bringing together nations and cultures; in enhancing the environment without deteriorating natural resources; in bringing to fulfilment and enriching the cultural and economic wealth of the local population; in fighting all forms of discrimination and exploitation or, worst still, of sexual violence in relation to women and minors. ". The document continued: " In this context, the Congress participants, inspired by the special love of Christ for the poor, consider the pastoral care of persons exploited by sex tourism as a high priority for the Church. /p>
Among these persons, the most vulnerable and in urgent need of proper care are certainly women, minors and children, but protection and special concern for children urge us to recommend for this very special group of exploited persons the following: that to children in this situation, compassion, legal protection and the restoration of their human dignity be given; that the child must not be criminalized in cases where the contents of the Convention of the Rights of the Child have been violated, as in the case of sexual abuse. Even more, immigration authorities should give special attention to this reality; that state authorities give priority and urgency to counteracting trafficking and the economic exploitation especially of children in sex tourism;
that state authorities give priority and urgency to counteracting trafficking and the economic exploitation especially of children in sex tourism; that State institutions intensify the implementation of laws that protect children from sexual exploitation in tourism and bring to justice the offenders through intensive, co-ordinated and consistent efforts at all levels of society, and in collaboration with international organizations; that dioceses and communities concerned give due pastoral care to children exploited for sexual purposes in the tourist industry. They should raise the awareness of society as to the seriousness of the situation and share information about this social evil and about ways to address it; that dioceses and Catholic communities concerned establish structures for the pastoral care of exploited children as an important aspect of their mission of evangelization; and that they cooperate, in dialogue and action with local State authorities, to combat child exploitation with practical measures; that dioceses and Catholic communities support existing means of apostolate, or establish new ones, that will care for the victims with compassion and love and provide legal assistance, therapy and reintegration into society and, where Christians are involved, into the faith community; that national and regional conferences on the Pastoral Care of Tourism be held for competent authorities of social and apostolic action to implement what was here recommended.
Pope Benedict XVI, during an audience with the Catholic Bishops of the Antilles, in the Vatican the 7 April 2008, said among other things: "To varying degrees, your shores have been battered by negative aspects of the entertainment industry, exploitative tourism and the scourge of the arms and drugs trade; influences which not only undermine family life and unsettle the foundations of traditional cultural values, but tend to affect negatively local politics".
A ruinous and revolting 'octopus'
In an impressive intervention on 4 April 2003, at the European Conference on Protecting Child Abuse, Monsignor Piero Monni — the then Holy See Permanent Observer to the World Tourism Organisation — described sex tourism as a ruinous and revolting 'octopus'. Monsignor Monni recalled that in the World Health Organisation 1993 Report on International Diseases, paedophilia, treated in the chapter on sexual preferences, is defined: "a preference for children, usually pre-puberty or early puberty". To commit an act which can be called an act of paedophilia — the document explains — the person must be over 16 years of age and at least five years older than the minor (WHO). These acts can be homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual. The acts can be committed through seduction, threats or for a reward The acts can also derive from an apparent consent of the minor especially if the minor reveals lack of affection which he finds satisfied in the major (WHO).
"The tourist for sex — Monsignor Monni affirms — who wants to practice sex with minors and organises holidays in countries which not only tolerate prostitution of minors they even advertise is to attract tourists and foreign currency. Countries which enjoy greater licitness of behaviour deriving from traditional and religious customs often dangerous at the limit of legality. Se tourism feeds the market of minor prostitution and brings large profit to tourist agencies which care for the special traveller: from advertising (sometimes masked, other times clear and unequivocal), to arrival 'services', destination, accommodation in hotel or small or residence which include 'special services'".
In his intervention, Monsignor Monni listed the principal destinations for sex tourism (defined a "business"): in Asia, the Philippines, Taiwan, la Thailand, India, Ceylon; in Latin America: Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela; in Africa: Kenya. "Unscrupulous policies — said Monsignor Monni — l'avidità economic greed of the local privileged classes, poverty in some countries and the people's struggle to survive form the humus, the base, on which this new form of slavery develops. To this we must add economic pressure on the part of foreign investors in the sector of tourism in developing countries and the attraction of consumer good incentivised industrialised countries". "If Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar — a Monsignor Monni added — are crawling with tourists in hungry for sex with minors, the Philippines also continue to pay the penalty of immorality due, mostly, to the heritage received during Japanese occupation in the 1940s and then later American. Military bases present in the Philippines during World War II became centres of paedophile irradiation among the people afflicted by under development. Thailand too, during the Vietnam War, hosted thousands of North American troops who left a sad memory of sexual preference for minors.
It must be said that unfortunately today, in war zones on the various continents including Europe, recklessness on the part of no few soldiers extended to sexual relations with minors. In Olangopo, a town in the Philippines with a population more than four thousand, not far from Manila, prostitution of minors has reach pathological levels. It is impossible to walk along the street without being stopped by a minor offering sex. If we go to Brazil, we find Fortaleza, a large city, a centre of paedophile attraction. Groups of paedophiles also come from Italy, perhaps only occasionally, but definitely with the reckless intention of harming the innocence of children. In Mexico, gringos come in large numbers and in the desert USA border area, videocassettes of minors subjected to sexual violence are produced at the industrial level at solitary cinema studios produce".
The World Tourism Organisation defines sex tourism as "travel organised by tourist operators of others which use its structures and networks with the primary intention of helping the tourist to have sexual relations with the local people " (World Ethics of Tourism Code). This sort of tourism, according to the UN has social and cultural consequences for both the country of origin and the country of destination, particularly in situations where inequality of sex, age, social and economic conditions of the people resident in the tourist centres is exploited.
In some parts of the world sex tourism has become a phenomenon of mass consumption. Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America are among the areas where buying and selling of human bodies for sexual use is big business. At the centre of this trafficking are women children, mostly girls. People who are fragile, defenceless, poor, objects of the ease with which the western man consumes his animal instincts. Sex tourism is sexual abuse by male or female tourists of socially and economically disadvantaged persons, nearly always minors, in exchange not necessarily for money, but also access to consumer goods and life style otherwise out of reach.
The practice of sex tourism is based on a distorted view of certain poor countries as places where there is absolute freedom of behaviour and total impunity for practices such as sex with minors or the use of violence in sexual relations with women, men, transsexuals, children and adolescents, more difficult to perform in rich countries. With this distorted vision western men and women (sex tourism among women is a growing phenomenon) seek places where they think they can engage in serious criminal behaviour in guaranteed impunity, and where they know they will find hundreds of thousands of girls and boys, adolescents, transsexuals, men and women in need or emotionally fragile ready to satisfy their whims.
Sex tourism, since it is based on the exploitation of the weakest persons unable to decide autonomously their own destiny, is a crime and is considered as such in the legislation in many countries including Italy and Brazil.
Another element which contributed to the growth of the phenomenon of sex tourism and the spread of child prostitution, was the Vietnam War which led to the presence of many military bases in several Asian countries, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Philippines and Okinawa; at the end of the war it was estimated that Saigon had 500,000 prostitutes. Military bases made Asian cities grow and even created new cities and public places where prostitutes were provided. Little girls and adolescents can be victims of the prostitution market also following the arrival of peace-keeping forces. In Mozambique for example, after the signing of a 1992 peace agreement, prostitution with girls aged between 12 and 18 was organised by UN peacekeepers of ONUMOZ (United Nations Operations in Mozambique). This was denounced in a Report, Consequences of Armed Conflict on Children and Adolescents, written by Graça Machel at the request of the then UN secretary general, Boutros Ghali. The Report was presented to the United Nations General Assembly in August 1996. In preparation for the Machel Report 12 studies on sexual abuse of minors during armed conflicts were made in twelve countries; it emerged that in 6 of the countries studied, the arrival of the peacekeepers was associated with a rapid increase in prostitution of minors.
According to a more recent 'updated' Graça Machel Report, presented in New York in December 2007, the impact of war on children was more brutal than ever in the past decade: victims of attacks on schools, abducted and forced to fight as soldiers, or act as sex slaves or live conditions of servitude. In war zones children's vulnerability often increased due to the fact that violence strikes their natural line of defence, the parents. "the danger for children trapped in war continues to grow ", said UNICEF director general Ann Veneman. "They are no longer simply victims of crossfire, they have increasingly become the predestined target of violence, abuse and exploitation, at the mercy of the hundreds of armed groups which harass the civilian population". The new Report also illustrated progress to prevent recruitment of child soldiers, organise demobilisation and support social reinsertion. Joint international community interventions have brought results in the fight against sexual violence. In this area important successes include, preliminary judiciary measures on the part of international courts, commitment on the part of the UN Security Council to monitor the making and adoption of new international laws and standards. The latter include an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts, and the adoption of the Paris Principles for the Prevention of Illegal Recruitment and Use of Children in War. The new report also makes concrete recommendations for the next ten years including an appeal to member countries and civil society to protect children living in at least 50 war zones all over the world, and children struggling for survival in countries until recently at war.
Girls and boys in the sex market
On the basis of a report by ECPAT End Child Prostitution Pornography and Trafficking drafted in collaboration with the Italian universities of Parma, Modena and Reggio Emilia, the phenomenon is widespread and involves especially the following countries: Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, India, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Dominican Republic, Ukraine, Bulgaria and several African countries. Some regions or cities have become reputed sex tourism destinations and many coincide with prostitution zones in Amsterdam in Holland, Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket in Thailand and Angeles, in the Pampanga province of the Philippines, the site of the first US Army Base in that country.
However, even more widespread than child prostitution is the phenomenon of human trafficking, despite the fact that by law governments are obliged to protect minors from exploitation and sexual abuse. This principle is stated in international conventions and recommendations. For example the Convention on the Rights of the Child states in article 34: "It is the responsibility of Governments to protect children from any form of sexual exploitation and abuse."; in article 35 government responsibility is extended to the prevention of the abduction, selling or trafficking of children for any purpose or in any form. The same commitments were reiterated in the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Selling of Children and Child Prostitution and Pornography issued in June 2000. We mention also various UN programmes: 1992 Action Programme to Prevent the Selling of Children and Child Prostitution and Pornography and 1996 Action Programme to Prevent Human Trafficking, Exploitation and Prostitution.
According to information collected by ECPAT and the mentioned Italian universities, 90-95% of sex tourists are males aged between 20 and 40 years, coming from different social classes.
One of the most frequented places for sex tourism in the city of Fortaleza, in the north east of Brazil. In the period from December 2004 to January 2005, the presence in this city of tourists from Brazil and other countries was 13.5% higher than in the previous year. The greater part of the increase was due to a 40% boom in foreign tourists mainly from Portugal, Italy, Germany and the US. Analysing the tourist attractions offered by Fortaleza, it emerged that over the years the city has grown thanks to its tourist offers of cheap sex, low cost air travel, cheap hotels and "all inclusive" holiday packages. The phenomenon had already emerged in investigations by a parliamentary commission and several institutes of research which indicated as the causes of the phenomenon social exclusion, economic hardship, hunger, and foreign business initiatives without scruples, hotels, holiday villages, restaurants etc. In Brazil this phenomenon is seen in the main tourist areas Rio, Salvador, Recife, Foz do Iguaçu,Natal, Manaus but especially Fortaleza. According to Brazil's Presidential Special Office for Human Rights, 22 towns in Rio Grande do Norte are among the 937 towns in the country where minors are sexually abused for commercial profit. This expression includes: international trafficking of minors for insertion in networks of prostitution; exploitation of adolescents in private clubs; use of minors for the production of pornographic films. In Rio Grande do Norte, this latter crime takes place almost exclusively in and around Natal and in a few other coastal tourist spots. However many of the adolescents involved in sex tourism come from towns in the interior regions where they are exploited in local clubs or in the production of pornography.
In Bulgaria in 2005 a national weekly Politika denounced that the city of Petrich known for its sex tourism had been joined by Sandaski, a town with a population of 30,000 but which has, according to the weekly, at least two thousand prostitutes.
According to the Children's Rights Organisation in India hundreds of children are exploited to satisfy the appetites of paedophiles, mainly foreign tourists on holiday in Goa. The paedophile either approaches the child directly or uses local intermediaries. In Africa, Kenya is one of the most frequented destinations for sex tourism. According to a survey by UNICEF and the Kenyan government — undertaken in the district of Diani, south east Malindi in October 2005, Kilifi and Mombasa between November 2005 and Kwale March 2006 — about 50% of the clients who abuse children are European males. Moreover the survey revealed that in the coastal towns of Mombasa, Kilifi, Malindi and Kwale about 15,000 or 30% of the population of girls aged 12 to 18, occasionally prostitute themselves. The best clients come from: Italy 18%, Germany 14% and Switzerland 12%, followed by tourists from Uganda, Tanzania, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Kenya itself. For UNICEF, one of the most serious aspects is that generally speaking the phenomenon is accepted by public opinion which means that every child in Kenya is in danger. More than 75% of the key informants questioned (employees of tourism or business representatives) consider sex tourism with children either normal or tolerable and some even fully approved; only 20% considered this behaviour immoral.
Reportedly sex trafficking involves as many as 80,000 Italians (average age 27). After Kenya, the most popular counties are Dominican Republic and Colombia. The girl children abused are between the ages of 11 and 15 years whereas abused boys are aged 13 to 18 and the meetings are often filmed and put on the Internet. Clients for sex tourism with women go mainly to Kenya, Gambia, Senegal, Cuba, Brazil and Colombia.
Interview with Marco Scarpati, ECPAT president Italy
End Child Prostitution Pornography and Trafficking
ECPAT, for its part, is by no means idle: in countries at risk it has programmes of cooperation and rehabilitation centres, the most recent one opened in Bulgaria, "some of the children brought to us have had as many as 6.000 "clients" a year"), joint training for Italian police and police from other countries, prevention campaign projects ("since the age of the tourist for sex has dropped so dramatically this means prevention here must start with adolescents"). Why is Italy, the country of origin of so many sex hunters, also in front line to combat this evil: "With regard to government funding we are top of the list in Europe and in the world. It has been a constant commitment since 2000", says Scarpati. The next appointment is the 3rd World Congress Against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents organised by ECPAT, UNICEF and NGOs on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Venue: Rio de Janeiro.
ECPAT is an international network of organisations which work together to eradicate child prostitution and pornography and trafficking of minors for sex. ECPAT was started in Thailand in 1991 to combat an alarming increase in child prostitution and the incidence of tourism to spread this phenomenon. It works closely with NGOs, UNICEF and ILO. It collaborates with the police forces of the children's countries of origin and with Interpol. It also works with the tourist industry to combat sex tourism which exploits children. It pressures local authorities to adopt measures to protect children from any form of sexual abuse. It identifies and denounces activity of exploiters in Italy and elsewhere. It is involved in lobbying for the approval of laws or improvement of existing ones for more effective protection of minors. It works with teachers and students to encourage study of human rights; north-south unbalance; responsible tourism, which respects the dignity of others. It watches the media and the Internet to combat the use of children for the production of pornographic material. Today ECPAT is the most extensive international network against sexual exploitation of minors: sex tourism using minors; child prostitution, child trafficking for sexual exploitation; child pornography ".
Mr Scarpati, if you were to make an estimate, how many of the world's children are exploited for sex tourism?
First of all I must say, I dislike estimates. They do not interest me. I have no idea of the number. I consider the United Nations' estimate of 2.5 million exaggerated. However it should be said that the phenomenon is certainly not subsiding, on the contrary it has grown continually in recent years. Very many people travel the world looking for minors. Nevertheless sexual exploitation is not the main problem in the field of minors. It is immoral, because rich westerners abuse children for their own sexual pleasure, but it should be said that people in search of children to abuse go to certain places where children are already exploited by local gangs. Places are created especially, I am thinking of prostitution districts in many Asian cities where 'objects' for sex are sold, bodies, persons are sold, whatever Europeans want to buy is sold.
Let's go back to estimates. Your organisation has issued numbers with regarding Italians who travel the world for sex tourism, an estimated 80,000, the highest number in Europe, a shocking figure. Do you think it can be believed?
I am afraid so.
This is a vast business
And this is the problem. The purpose of our activity is to make it known that the number of persons involved is enormous. We are talking about big business and vast profits. If the child market were not so interesting from the point of view of profit, it would not exist. So the key to stopping it is to stop the demand.
What means do these people use, how do they organise their activity?
There is the Internet, which has no rivals. On the Internet they find everything already organised including prices and sales contracts.
What can be done to combat this evil?
One way would be simply to stop the clients from leaving, to prevent them from getting to countries where sexual tourism is practised. Another way would be to intervene to improve the economy of 'donor' countries and undertake serious means of prevention, teaching children and training local police forces to watch out for the phenomenon and to repress the crimes which the phenomenon causes. It would be helpful to sensitise and put on guard workers in other sectors of tourism, such as taxi drivers, tourist guides, hotels etc; and try to ensure that tourists are not offered this type of activity.
What countries are involved in this phenomenon?
It would be quicker to list the countries not involved, because this phenomenon is now global. However, as far as we know, the countries involved are Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya (destination preferred by Italians), Cuba, which tries to hide the problem, Brazil, Peru. There are also some unimaginable places. Not long ago ECPAT Italia was informed about tour operators who organise sex tourism, under the heading of 'Fishing and Hunting Safaris', in Mongolia.
This item 8382 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
