Human Trafficking in [Italy] [other countries]
Street Children in [Italy] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Italy] [other countries]
 

Child Prostitution

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Italian Republic (Italy) [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

The Italian Republic [map], located in S Europe, is bordered by France (NW), by the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea (W), by the Ionian Sea (S), by the Adriatic Sea (E), by Slovenia (NE), and by Austria and Switzerland (N). The country includes the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and several small islands, notably Elba, Capri, Ischia, and the Lipari Islands. Rome is Italy's capital and largest city. Italy has a diversified industrial economy with roughly the same total and per capita output as France and the UK. This capitalistic economy remains divided into a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies, and a less developed, welfare-dependent agricultural south, with 20% unemployment.

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Italy. Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated, misleading or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

ECPAT – On-line form for reporting child prostitution and other sexual offences against children

Quick Search for Missing Children - Select Gender, Country (Italy), and Years Missing

Runaways - Where To Turn For Help Before You Are Homeless

Here are the best phone numbers to call …They are Confidential - which means they won't tell anyone about your call unless you want them to talk to somebody for you, or you are in danger. They are open 24 hours - it doesn't matter what time you call. In Italy, call 030/226363 – 2420845

National Plan of Action

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

CHILDREN - NGOs estimated that 8 to 10 percent of prostitutes were minors. An independent research center estimated that there were between 1,800 and 3,000 minors who worked as street prostitutes, of whom 1,500 to 2,300 were trafficked into the country and forced into prostitution.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003

[37] The Committee welcomes the establishment of a National Commission for the coordination of action regarding maltreatment, abuse and sexual exploitation of children and the adoption of a global strategy.

[49] The Committee welcomes the adoption of Act 269/98 against the exploitation of prostitution, pornography, and sexual tourism targeting children and the establishment of an Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Coordination of the Government Action Against Child Abuse and Trafficking in Minors and Women for Sexual Purposes. Nevertheless, the Committee remains concerned at the numbers of children who are trafficked for sexual purposes in the State party.

ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action [DOC]

[B] COUNTRY UPDATES – ITALY – Italy’s national plan has facilitated a discussion among ministries about how to tackle CSEC. The Ministry of Social Solidarity has formed an inter-ministerial commission to work on the issue. The commission includes UNICEF, and NGOs such as ECPAT Italy. The trafficking of young Albanian girls for sexual slavery is an on-going problem in Italy. The victims usually work at night on the street. Unfortunately, as a report on child trafficking from Save the Children in Albania states, there is “little coordination between the many organizations that help them”. Nevertheless, the government has established a free hotline for women and girls who are trying to escape sexual slavery and social reintegration programs are also being implemented.

Italy's Sex Trade Pulls Teens Pushed by Poverty

Sex Trafficking of Girls Is a 'Family Issue' - Often it is a girl's parent who seeks out a trafficker and requests that she be sent to Italy, she explains. As a foreign prostitute, a girl can make far more than Nigeria's average income of less than a dollar a day; and though she may have to pay as much as $50,000 to the madam who sends for her, everything she earns after that is hers to keep or send home. Nigerian girls are seen as "dispensable"

Country Information

COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN TOURISM - it is the introduction in the prostitution market of underage girls coming from Albania and from other Eastern European countries, who were smuggled illegally through Italian borders by criminal groups, mostly composed of Albanian citizens. A recent study has shown that 20,000 prostitutes are present in Italy, of which 2,000 are under age. Other studies report 1000 registered under-age prostitutes in Rome alone.

Child Prostitution

FEBRUARY 2000 - US Dept of State report says that prior to 1999, of the 2,500 child street prostitutes in Italy, an estimated 2,000 of those were abducted from Albania and Nigeria. A CATW fact book challenges the numbers and says that more than 8,000 Albanian girls work as prostitutes in Italy.

World News Snapshots

ITALY - CHINESE CHILDREN SOLD FOR SEX THROUGH ITALY - A couple has been charged with posing as the parents of a twelve-year-old girl that they were bringing through Italy as a way station to her sale as a child prostitute. Prosecutors believe there is a ring of sex-trafficking in Italy, using the same modus operandi for Chinese children. Indictments against three Italians and three Japanese participants are anticipated.

6,000 children smuggled to the west each year for sex

Researchers have identified north-eastern Italy as a key sorting centre for girls from eastern Europe who are either sold by their parents, kidnapped by organised crime gangs, or lured abroad by the mirage of a better life.

There is a particularly high concentration of juvenile sex slaves in the area between Padua and Venice, with 20% of prostitutes under the age of 18, compared to 5% in other Italian cities, the charity said. Last year 250 girls managed to escape from their exploiters and seek assistance from the Italian state.

Human Trafficking in [Italy] [other countries]
Street Children in [Italy] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [Italy] [other countries]