Gambia: Sex tourists exploiting children

BAKAU, 30 October 2008 (IRIN) - “More and more children are working in the sex industry with tourists,” said Bakary Badjie, programme officer with the non-profit coalition the Child Protection Alliance (CPA). “Sexual relations between children and tourists are shifting from hotels, deeper into communities, where it is harder to track.”

Though the latest comprehensive report on the problem - by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) - is from 2003, anecdotal evidence shows the practice has grown since then, said Badjie.

A sex worker, 23, who asked not to be named, told IRIN many of her fellow sex workers are under 18, and most of her clients are Western male tourists. They work in Bakau, a suburb of Banjul popular with tourists. At least half of the female Gambian sex-workers UNICEF talked to for its 2003 report said they started as a sex worker before the age of 18, some as early as age 12.

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