UNICEF report on child abuse issues black list of countries

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The country with most cases of sexual offences against children is India, with 400,000 cases yearly. Second is the USA with between 244,000 and 325,000 and third, Thailand, with 200,000.

The report “Profiting from the abuse of children” was issued by UNICEF on Tuesday. The report is full of stories such as the case of a Filipino girl, Roda, who was raped by her father, beaten by her uncle and forced into prostitution at the age of 16. “The clients used to tell me to perform things I did not want to do but if I didn’t, they would hit me”, she declares.

Another girl, Beth, tells of a living hell as a prostitute on board a ship. She claimed the only way she survived was by being permanently “stoned or drunk”.

The report calls for “zero tolerance” in combating this crime, the sexual exploitation of minors for profit, described as “a very widespread problem”. It highlights the danger against the person of the victims, namely sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and unwanted pregnancy.

The few children who manage to escape from these vice rings alive, such as Roda and Beth, suffer social stigma which are with them for the rest of their lives: rejection by society and rejection by the family, which cause fear and loss of interest in life.

The report states that “millions of children are being sold as goods around the world” to be held as sex slaves.

Other countries listed high on the list of cases of sexual abuse against women and children are the Philippines, Taiwan and Brazil, each with 100,000 cases and two areas, namely Central and Eastern Europe, with 175,000 cases (mainly in Romania, Moldavia and the Ukraine) and Western Africa (35,000 cases).

Stricter checks by authorities on frontiers and stop-and-check powers to police forces to intervene in suspect cases, coupled with seriously-intended raids on houses of vice would do much to alleviate the problem.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru