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Young children are supplying an increasing demand from foreign tourists who
travel to Brazil for sex holidays, according to a BBC investigation. Chris
Rogers reports on how the country is overtaking Thailand as a destination for
sex tourism and on attempts to curb the problem.
Her small bikini exposes her tiny frame. She looks no older than 13 - one of
dozens of girls parading the street looking for clients in the blazing
mid-afternoon sun. Most come from the surrounding favelas - or slums.
As I park my car, the young girl dances provocatively to catch my attention.
"Hello my name is Clemie - you want a programme?" she asks, programme being the
code word they use for an hour of sex. Clemie asks for less than $5 ( 3) for
her services. An older woman standing nearby steps in and introduces herself as
Clemie's mother.
Continue reading the main story
Start Quote
I usually have more than 10 clients per night - they pay 10 reais each - enough
for a rock of crack
End Quote Pia 13-year-old prostitute
"You have the choice of another two girls, they are the same age as my
daughter, the same price," she explains. "I can take you to a local motel where
a room can be rented by the hour."
I make my excuses and head towards the bars and brothels of the nearby
red-light district.
Despite assurances of a police crackdown, there appears to be little evidence
of child prostitution disappearing from the streets of Recife. In four years'
time, the country will be hosting the World Cup, which will fuel its booming
economy.
Brazil has defied the global economic downturn thanks, in part, to its exotic,
endless beaches attracting record numbers of tourists.
The country's erotic reputation has long been attracting an unwanted type of
tourist. Every week specialist holiday operators bring in thousands of European
singles on charted flights looking for cheap sex. Now Brazil is overtaking
Thailand as the world's most popular sex-tourist destination.
Underage
As night falls, the sex tourist's playground in Recife, in the state of
Pernambuco, comes alive. Prostitutes mingle with tourists, dancing at their
sides and eyeing up potential business. The legal age for prostitution is 18,
but many look much younger.
Chris Rogers with two young boys Two young transvestites say they need to work
to get money for food
Taxi drivers work with the girls who are too young to get into the bars. One
offers me two for the price of one and a lift to a local motel.
"They are underage, so much cheaper than the older ones," he explains as he
introduces me to Sara and Maria.
Neither has made any attempt to disguise their age. One clings to a bright pink
Barbie bag, and they hold each other's hands looking terrified at the
possibility of potential custom.
Recife's red-light area is now crammed with cars slowly crawling past groups of
girls parading their bodies.
One of them, Pia, is dressed in a cropped pink top and mini skirt. The
13-year-old agrees to speak to me about her life as a child prostitute. She
explains that she works from the same street corner every night until dawn to
fund her and her mother's crack cocaine habit.
"I usually have more than 10 clients per night," she boasts. "They pay 10 reais
( 3.50, $5.50)) each - enough for a rock of crack."
Continue reading the main story
Start Quote
Entire streets are now cleared of prostitution - my aim is to intensify these
raids in time for the World Cup
End Quote Eline Marques Secretary of state for child protection, Fortaleza
For safety, Pia works with a group of older girls who act as pimps, taking care
of the money and watching over the younger ones.
"There's lots of girls working around here. I'm not the youngest, my sister is
12, and there's an 11-year-old." But Pia is worried about her sister: "Bianca
hasn't been seen for two days since she left with a foreign guy," she says.
Pia first started working as a prostitute at the age of seven, and Unicef
estimates there are 250,000 child prostitutes like her in Brazil.
"I've been doing it for so long now, I don't even think about the dangers," Pia
tells me. "Foreign guys just show up here. I've been with lots of them. They
just show up like you."
Crackdown
Just a couple of streets away the pavement is lined with transvestites touting
for clients. Among them 14-year-old Ronison and 12-year-old Ivan.
The cousins look convincing in their stilettos, mini skirts and blouses, and
heavy make up.
"We need to earn money to buy rice and staple foods for our families," Ronison
explains as he flicks back his long bobbed hair. "Our parents don't worry about
us too much. We tell them when we are leaving and when we're coming back. And
then we give the money to them to buy food. They know how we get the money, we
just don't discuss it"
Police search The city of Fortaleza has been carrying out relentless clean-up
operations
Most sex tourists used to head to the city of Fortaleza some 500 miles away.
But not anymore. For the past year, the state capital of Ceara - which also a
World Cup host city - has been sending a clear message to sex tourists that
they are not welcome. Every week a dozen armed cars and federal police armed
with AK-47s sweep through the streets of the red-light district, breaking down
the doors of motels and brothels, arresting offenders and taking underage girls
into care.
Eline Marques, the city's secretary of state for child protection, claims her
relentless raids are having an effect.
"We have shut down many establishments in Fortaleza. Entire streets are now
cleared of prostitution. My aim is to intensify these raids in time for the
World Cup, targeting the very tourism that encourages child prostitution," she
says.
Other states have indicated that they are monitoring Ms Marques' campaign and,
if deemed successful, could follow suit.
'Terrified'
But for every sex establishment that is shut down, every sex tourist arrested,
there are victims.
Many are taken to charity run homes. The Centro de Recuperacao Rosa De Saron
near Recifi is full to capacity because many of the girls can't be returned
home to the poverty that drove them into prostitution. They are sent there from
all over Brazil.
Love Motel Love Motels can be hired by the hour
Twelve-year-old Maria wants to live with her mother but she can't because her
pimp, who forced her to work on the streets and in brothels, threatened to kill
her if she tried to escape. She told me that she is still terrified for her
life.
"I had no choice but to do what he said. I felt I was losing my childhood, I
was only nine years old," she says. "I was scared. Sometimes if I came back
without money for him he'd hit me."
Jane Sueli Silva, who founded the centre, says most of the girls are between 12
and 14 when they arrive.
"Many of them arrive here with serious problems like cervical cancer," she
says. "As the cancer is normally at only early stage, we can help them and
thank God the cure is normally always successful."
Some girls also turn up pregnant, their child fathered by a sex tourist.
Hopes
The British charity Happy Child International plans to build more centres to
house a growing number of child prostitutes.
"The crisis for these children turning to prostitution has increased
significantly in the north-east of Brazil over the last few years, fuelled by
increasing numbers of foreign tourists who travel to Brazil for sex holidays,"
says Sarah de Carvalho of Happy Child International.
"It is so important to take the children away from the lure of the streets and
break the cycle and give them a safe place to live and receive help."
But charities and police crackdowns have yet to reach children like Pia, the
13-year-old prostitute whom I met on the streets of Recife.
Continue reading the main story
Start Quote
Every day I ask God to take me out of this life
End Quote Pia 13-year-old prostitute
Her home is a small shack she shares with her mother, two brothers and
12-year-old sister, who had still failed to return home. It was nothing more
than a crumbling shed with two sofas acting as a bed and a plastic bucket to
wash clothes and plates.
When I asked Casa if her daughters' work in prostitution breaks her heart, she
appeared more concerned that they fail to bring home money. "If they make money
they don't bring it home. No - they don't bring any money home," she said.
Pia told me that one day she hopes to break out of prostitution. She said she
had heard of charities that provide a home for girls like her.
"Every day I ask God to take me out of this life. Sometimes I do stop, but then
I go back to the streets looking for men. The drug is bad, the drug is my
weakness and the clients are always there willing to pay."