Guatemala 'closes its eyes' to rampant child sex trafficking: U.N.
Wed Jun 8, 2016 1:44pm EDT
Guatemala 'closes its eyes' to rampant child sex trafficking: U.N.
By Anastasia Moloney
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Every day 33 people become entrapped in sex trafficking rings in Guatemala, including a "shocking" proportion of children, some of them sold into the sex trade by their mothers, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.
Nearly 60 percent of the 50,000 victims of sex trafficking in Guatemala are children, according to a report by UNICEF and the U.N. Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which estimates the industry to be worth $1.6 billion a year.
"We never imagined the magnitude of the number of children being sexually exploited. People were shocked by the figures, as were we," Kagoshima said, referring to the recent U.N. report.
Girls as young as 12 work in brothels and are forced to have sex with up to 30 customers a day, while virgin girls are recruited at schools, she said.
Sex trafficking is fueled by a "social tolerance" of children being sold for sex work, a business equal to 2.7 percent of Guatemala's gross domestic product, she said.
"Society collectively closes its eyes to children being exploited. We have to open our eyes to the problem," Kagoshima told the Thomson Reuters Foundation late on Tuesday.
Poverty is one of the biggest drivers of sex trafficking in the central American country where three in five people live on less than $3.10 a day, UNICEF said.
More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-guatemala-humantrafficking-idUSKCN0YU29V?rpc=401