Children as young as 13 involved in sex trade
Updated
Fiji's poor economy is being blamed for a rise in the number of children becoming prostitutes. The child sex industry has boomed in Fiji over the last five to six years. Tania Lee spoke with an Fijian adult sex worker who did not wish to be named, who says children in their early teens are getting involved in the sex trade.
Geraldine Coutts
Speakers:Fiji's Womens Crisis Centre Co-ordinator Shamima Ali; Save the Children Fiji's Iris Low; unnamed Fiji sex worker.
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SEX WORKER:Well from experience, the last, the youngest girl I met on the street was thirteen years old and that was like two weeks ago.
LEE: What's your experience with young people in the sex industry? Obviously you must see them day to day...
SEX WORKER: Well young people that come into the sex industry here, they get ill-treated by clients, and, as well as older sex workers. They get used actually. They would be promised fees and they wouldn't get what they were promised. So it's really sad.
LEE: If they're new, do they know what they are getting themselves into?
SEX WORKER: From my experience they know what they're getting themselves into. The thing is, young people in Fiji nowadays, they want everything, they want IPhones, IPods, cool mobile phones. So with the sex work they can get it.
LEE: These goods however, don't come without paying a price.
SEX WORKER: Two weeks ago I walked down the street to work and I saw this thirteen-year old girl being slapped in the face by older sex workers and told off because she didn't get what was expected from the client. She spoiled the client actually.
LEE: Are there any boys involved in the sex industry?
SEX WORKER: Well the boys would be, I would say feminine boys, they become transgenders.
LEE: The Fiji Womens Crisis Centre says vulnerable children are increasingly finding themselves hanging around ports, attracted to the sex trade that often occurs off shore.
It's also claimed that children are being employed as prostitutes by pimps who also double as taxi drivers, as well as attracting paedophiles on the streets.
The Center's co-ordinator, Shamima Ali, says they're investigating yatchties who allegedly lure young children to swim out to sea and hop on board to perform sex acts in exchange for less than twenty dollars.
ALI: We're expressing concern that maybe these children are being taken around and being passed on to other people and so on. They are very vulnerable children, particularly given the poverty sitution of the economy in Fiji at the moment.
LEE: Iris Low, Program Manager at Save the Children Fiji, also agrees the trade exists in coastal areas.
LOW: Especially in ports of entries, like towns with airports, or ports of entries for ships or yatchs, so this is of great concern, and it's really linked to child sex tourism
LEE: It is unknown how many Fijian children are involved in the sex industry but Shamima Ali believes the problem has become more widespread.
ALI: The issue of children being exploited for sex in terms of child prostitution, well that has I would say over the last five to six years, that has become of great concern. And this is not only happening in Fiji. I travel around the Pacific, I see this in Papua New Guinea. I've seen this Tonga. I've seen this in Vanuatu, in Soloman Islands.
LEE: Save the Children Fiji's Iris Low says there is increasing awareness of the issue around the Pacific.
LOW: A workshop was held in November last here in Fiji , where we brought about all these Pacific Island countries to share their stories or what their findings, and it was shown that it's prevalent in other Pacific Island countries as well, not just Fiji.
LEE: Shamima Ali says things are likely to get worse.
ALI: Oh yes I think so. As this situation, you know the social economic political situation in the Pacific deteriorates over time, there's an increase in poverty, good governance is missing, and there's little money for children, and you know for children orientated services, I don't see this problem going away in a hurry.
