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

Child Prostitution

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Romania                                                                                      [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

Romania is located in SE Europe [map] and is bordered by Hungary (NW), by Serbia and Montenegro (SW), by Bulgaria (S), by the Black Sea (SE), by Moldova (NE), and by Ukraine (N).  Bucharest is its capital and largest city.  The process of social restructuring has been transforming Romania society at all levels, from civil society at large to individual families.  Children and women are among the most vulnerable groups in terms of hardship experienced since transition.

 

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Romania.  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.

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - It is estimated that about 30 percent of sex workers in Bucharest are under 18 years of age. There are indications that Romanian teenage boys and girls are involved in the sex trade in the countries of Western Europe. Romania is a country of origin and transit for internationally trafficked women and girls from Moldova, Ukraine, and other parts of the former Soviet Union to Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Cambodia for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

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

CHILDREN - Trafficking in girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation was a problem. There also were isolated cases of children involved in prostitution for survival without third party involvement.

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

[58] The Committee notes the establishment in 2001 of a national Task Force on Trafficking, the adoption of a national plan of action on trafficking, as well as the increased efforts of the State party to cooperate in regional programs to prevent trafficking and assist victims. Nevertheless, the Committee is concerned that Romania continues to be a country of origin, of transit and, to a lesser extent, of destination for trafficked children, as also noted by CEDAW, in June 2000 (A/55/38, paras. 308-309).

New Center in Romania to Aid Missing and Exploited Children

WHY ROMANIA?

v      The number of missing children reported missing in Romania has steadily increased from 244 in 2003, to 660 in 2004, to 750 in 2005.

v      There are an estimated 100,000 homeless children throughout Eastern Europe, including 2,000 in Romania. Child trafficking and child prostitution are problems in Romania and represent a large threat throughout Eastern Europe. Homeless or "street" children are frequent victims. An estimated 5 percent of the homeless children in Romania are forced into child prostitution.

v      An estimated 30% of sex workers in Bucharest are under 18 years of age. Romania, and in particular Bucharest, is one of the key travel destinations in Europe for child sex offenders.

v      Romania is a country of origin and transit for women and girls who are internationally trafficked from Moldova, Ukraine, and other parts of the former Soviet Union to Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Child Prostitution Flourish in Bulgaria, Romania

Child prostitution in Bulgaria and Romania is on the rise, according to a research, published by UNICEF.

Dark side of migration

www.thediplomat.ro/features_1006_1.htm

After working with street children in both Australia and Romania, Matei was approached in 1998 by police in Pitesti who asked if she could help with some girls between 14 and 17 forced to work as prostitutes.

She asked the local authorities for help. "But they did not understand what I meant by children forced into prostitution," says Matei. "No one wanted to work with them. The orphanages did not want the girls because they thought they would set a bad example to the other kids."

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

www.ecpat.net/eng/Ecpat_inter/publication/other/english/Doc_page/ecpat_5th_a4a_2001_full.doc

[B] COUNTRY UPDATES – ROMANIASalvati Copiii has carried out a series of workshops aimed at preventing CSEC. Representatives of governmental and non-governmental institutions attended the workshops. This organisation has also given lectures in schools on sexuality and self-defense strategies for children facing potential sexual abuse. IOM has embarked on an information campaign against trafficking and a research project on CSEC in Romania.

Report by Special Rapporteur [DOC]

[62] A National Plan of Action against sexual abuse and exploitation of children is awaiting approval before Government and legislation covering sexual abuse of children is being reconsidered.  Some stipulations of the Penal Code have been modified and the punishments for involving children in sexual acts or producing pornographic materials have been substantially increased.  These changes have resulted from an increase in the number of reported cases, as well as pressure from NGOs which have developed various prevention and intervention programs for eliminating sexual abuse and exploitation but which, without an adequate legislative framework, were not efficient.

Romania Bans Foreign Adoptions

The new law banning foreign adoptions is meant to better protect Romania's orphans, as many of the children supposedly destined for adoption were instead being trafficked into prostitution or the illegal organ trade.

Romania's Blighted Street Children

But he is most concerned by the increased targeting of these children by traffickers and pedophiles.  "They are taken in a car and sold like an animal, and used for prostitution in different houses," he said.  He did not believe how bad the problem was until he discovered an illegal brothel near his sister's house.  "He had girls, starting with eight- or nine-year-olds - most of them coming up off the street"

Easy Prey - Inside the Child Sex Trade

A Romanian filmmaker returns to his native land to document child prostitution and trafficking of Romanian street children.  Gallery - Armed with a hidden camera, filmmaker Liviu Tipurita investigates the growing child sex trade in his native Romania, focusing on the street children of Bucharest, the capital [Next]

Dead Souls

Maybe the most shocking thing was that the children seemed to go from giddiness to extreme discomfort when they found out that the man wanted to talk with them, not have sex with them. It was the talking that they saw as violation. The documentary showed the author bargaining with a Romanian father outside of a graveyard in Milan over how much it would cost to have sex with the man's 14-year-old son.

Country Information Romania

COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN TOURISM - Romania, and in particular Bucharest, is one of the key travel destinations in Europe for paedo-sexual offenders. The street-children are frequently victims. It is estimated that five per cent of the homeless children in Romania are forced into sexual exploitation. As a reaction, there has recently been an increase in the numbers of arrests, with foreign perpetrators receiving long prison sentences in Romania.

Basic Education and Policy Support Activity (BEPS)

BEPS launched a pilot project using education to combat child prostitution and trafficking in northeastern Romania. The project targeted a trafficking route near neighboring Moldova and Ukraine, which passes through two of the most impoverished counties of the country. The project worked to educate the general public, parents, educators, and youth about the risks of trafficking.

Children's Fund Announces Major Step Against Child Pornography

The United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, is praising Romania for ratifying an international agreement on child prostitution, child pornography, and the sale of children.  The overnight statement from UNICEF comes after Romania recently became the 10th country to ratify the agreement, thus making the protocol legally binding to signatories as of 18 January 2002.

Report On The Sale Of Children, Child Prostitution And Child Pornography [DOC]

According to this information, children are being trafficked into France primarily from Eastern Europe, notably Romania, and from West Africa, but also from Asia including such countries as India and China.  Many, if not most, of these children are under the control of trafficking networks and are forced into prostitution.

Youth-Sex Trade Flourishes In Post-Communist Eastern Europe

They're the child and teen-aged prostitutes of Eastern Europe, where the youth-sex trade is flourishing in the turmoil of the post-Communist era.  Some of the most harrowing stories told at a global conference on commercial child sex here come from Romania, where girls as young as nine have been found working as street or train-station prostitutes.

1.1.2. Trafficking of children

Anecdotes of child prostitution around train and bus stations, mainly of Roma children, are common.  The Romanian Embassy is not interested in repatriating these children and adolescents, and no special programs or services exist for migrant children living on the streets.

Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation - Romania

Trafficking, Prostitution, & Pornography

Bitter winter for Romania's street children

Some of the girls are child prostitutes. When you are 11 or 12, with nowhere to go and nothing to eat, it seems an easy - and sometimes the only - way to survive. Unaware of the dangers, they fall pregnant, and their babies die. Those that don't, they abandon because their unformed breasts contain no milk to feed them. Occasionally there is a girl cradling a sickly baby. Some of the children have AIDS, doomed to die before they become adults.

ROMANIA - Report On The Worst Forms Of Child Labour [PDF]

CHILD PROSTITUTION - 5% of the homeless children in Romania are in prostitution.  There are approximately 2,000 homeless children in Romania.  Many of them are forced to accept money for sex in order to survive.

Child Prostitution Seen As Threat to Eastern Europe

Victims were being recruited among an estimated 100,000 homeless children in eastern Europe, according to the survey by the ECPAT organization.  Child prostitution was rife in bars, hotels and around train stations. Experts blamed local gangsters, poverty, and lax attitudes developing as a reaction after the fall of puritanical communist regimes.  It said...boy prostitutes came mainly from Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Looking Back, Thinking Forward - The 4th report on commercial sexual exploitation of children

Hungary and Poland are receiver, sender and transit countries for the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. Romania is a sender and receiver country but Bulgaria is only a sender country. Hungary and Poland receive children from Romania, Ukraine and Russia. The main destinations for children trafficked from and through Poland are Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. Many of the victims are boys. Furthermore, in Poland students voluntarily prostitute themselves in Germany over the weekends in order to earn money.

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