The World Cup in Brazil attracts thousands of men looking for cheap sex – they find it with child prostitutes. The police as well as FIFA prefer to look the other way. A visit to the dark corners.

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When Lisa* hits the dance floor with a drink in her hand, she pictures how she will get it over with. She will talk to the man, get into his car, take off her clothes and, finally, when he begins to sleep with her, she will try to think of something beautiful.

Lisa sees another girl, maybe thirteen years old like herself, disappear with a much older man. Later she returns alone banknotes stuffed in her hand. Lisa yearns for more than her life in the slum can offer. Yet, her parents need the money she makes no matter how. That evening about 10 years ago Lisa goes off with a stranger for the first time.

Today Lisa is 23 years old. She sits next to a lake watching the water, a silent place to talk. For two years she worked in nightclubs or on the streets, offering herself for just a few Euros. Lisa managed to escape that world, but it's never over. She still wakes up in the middle of the night, haunted by her memories. In her dreams she still has to sleep with strangers for whom she is no more than a piece of flesh.

Her first boyfriend took his life

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When she told her first boyfriend about her former life as a sexually exploited child he took his own life. He couldn't stand it. Though she says: „I am very proud of myself that I've made it this far. But a lot of girls are still out there.”

Lisa lives in Fortaleza, a coastal city of 3.7 million in the northeast of Brazil. Along the regional capital’s sprawling beachside promenade homeless people beg for spare change, street vendors punt plastic drums and football kits and in nearby beach bars girls watch for single men. They say that they make a good price.

Avenida Juscelino Kubitscheck, a stone’s throw from the city’s international airport, is a key thoroughfare where groups of girls and boys ply their bodies. Teasingly licking their lips and grabbing their crotches as cars pass by, it is clear what they are negotiating with the stream of slowing drivers. Women like Lisa, who are familiar with the commercial sexual exploitation of minors, say: „There are more and more children. Here and throughout Brazil.”

Brazil’s Child sex industry is booming

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In the shadow of the world’s most-watched sporting event, Brazil’s child sex industry is booming. Even off–peak the South American nation attracts the biggest numbers of sex tourists alongside Thailand. In Brazil sex tourists can buy a child for just a few euros and this has added demand to an underground economy: the number of child prostitutes in Brazil is reckoned to have quadrupled in the past ten years. Today it is said to stand at around 400,000. Most of these children offer their bodies because their parents have pressured them into the trade. Sometimes they are simply sold, or even handed over, to mafia gangs.

Fortaleza is a child sex tourism hotspot. So is the city of Belo Horizonte and so is nearby Recife. Three World Cup city sites. In Fortaleza, the German team will face Ghana in their Group clash.

Brazil estimates that the World Cup will attract about 600,000 foreign travelers to the country, in addition to a further three million local travelers. It is said that a child could earn enough money through selling sex over the four week tournament that a family of four could live for a year on the proceeds.

Brazil and the Fifa simulate help

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All this explains why human rights activists are alarmed. It does not explain why Brazil's government only simulates aid and Fifa keeps quiet about the problem virtually.

In 2003 Brazil's then-President Lula da Silva announced that child prostitution would be eradicated within a few short years. However, it has turned out quite differently. Last week Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies approved a new law on the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. The crime was declared to be a “Crime Hediondo” – a hideous act that would attract harsher punishment. Brazil’s President, Dilma Rousseff, has said that child prostitution will be tackled during the World Cup in particular.

Waldemar Oliveira is a lawyer who works for the „Center for the Defense of Children and Adolescents.“ He is mistrustful of government on the issue of child prostitution: „We need specialized investigators,“ said Oliveira, „but the government says it has no money for it … In addition, there is a lack of many workers, computers and cars in order to get at least some measure of control.”

There are a lot of arrangements in place – certainly lots of paperwork – and the Brazilian police are being encouraged to cooperate with international security agencies to combat the sexual exploitation of children. The country’s law enforcement agencies are working together with the international police organization Interpol – at least in theory. A spokeswoman for the global policing body says the chances of success depend on whether child prostitution is really considered a major topic for the country to tackle: „In terms of specific campaigns on a day-to-day basis it really depends on the countries involved, and what the campaign is, and if they feel they need Interpol support.“ Yet, given the numbers and the reality on the ground for thousands of vulnerable youngsters, Brazilian authorities do not appear to feel the need for major support.

Some are forced – their familiy has to live

Back on Avenida Juscelino Kubitscheck in Fortaleza, wherechild prostitutes are offering themselves in exchange for a few euros, the bright white roof of the World Cup stadium looks almost close enough to touch. It is just a few hundred meters away.

During the day women with babies squat on the green which runs between the six-lane road while junkies beg for money. Houses nearby sit on wooden support beams – in place to prevent their collapse. Taxi drivers tell you that they wouldn't leave their car after dark. This is the area inhabited by the poorest of the poor. Many parents here have no chance to work and they cannot afford textbooks for their children – if they go to school at all. In places like these violence, crime and child prostitution flourish.

Many children who grow up here are beaten or raped by men in their families – brothers, fathers, uncles. Some children simply want to escape the misery – that is what drove Lisa into child prostitution. Some, meanwhile, are forced by their parents into this trade – it's often how an entire family survives.

„Cases have increased 100 percent“

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Tania Gurgel, Director of the Secretariat for Human Rights in Fortaleza, has been dealing with the issue of child prostitution for 25 years and says she has social workers at key places: along the coast, on the beach, at bus stops, around the stadium. “Those are the places where more and more cases have been occurring in the past few months.” What she is actually referring to is the growing number of child prostitutes.

Ana Isabel Cabral Lima de Souza from the auxiliary project Vira Vida says: “There are studies that show that the cases have increased by one hundred percent in Fortaleza. And the World Cup has not even begun yet.”

Children line the road and are clearly visible, but punters can be assured of both security and discretion. In Fortaleza, for example, taxi drivers will bring a punter to an awaiting child who will then get in the vehicle. The taxi is then driven a few hundred meters away and the taxi driver gets out. When it is all over he is paid a few Reais extra and will then abandon the girl or boy somewhere else in the city. The police know all about how this operation works, social workers say.

On good days she felt distinguished

Lisa scratches her forearm nervously when she talks about her years as a prostitute. She says: „I felt like an animal. It was a hellish life.” On good days she felt disgusted, on bad days she was beaten. She always returned, at least. Some children climb into a car and are never seen again. In the first two and a half months of this year 766 people were murdered in Fortaleza alone – almost ten a day. The clearance rate here stands at less than ten percent, and that does not include those who have been reported missing for extended periods of time.

Despite her freedom, Lisa remains worried. She has friends who still work in the streets and she sees girls who are as young as she was everywhere. Lisa says that she wishes Fifa would launch a campaign and donate money or support projects. But now she is despondent: „For them it is all about the event.“

It is obvious for child safety advocate Bernardo Rosemeyer that the country could not solve its problems of poverty and violence overnight. The fact that the World Cup is being played in Brazil is just a random occurrence he says. “But,” says the campaigner whose project has been bringing children off the streets of Fortaleza for 30 years and arranging education for them, ubiquitous government posters warning of the dangers of child prostitution are a waste of money. “The prostitutes are not able to read them anyway. Why does the government not fight against poverty?” Rosemeyer also does not understand why Fifa has not funded projects to combat child prostitution: “They make a fortune here,” he says, „what do they give back?”

Fifa is supposed to make hundreds of millions of euros in profit through the 2014 World Cup as four years ago in South Africa. The World Cup is a lucrative business for the association. FIFA has amassed more than one billion euros, according to its financial report 2013.

The association asserts that it has taken steps against child prostitution. They invest a total of „20 million US dollars in various projects as part of the World Cup's sustainability strategy“, says a spokesman. Sexual exploitation of children is an issue, he adds. FIFA does not reveal how much money they spend on it. They have focused on „bringing our concerns and expectations to the responsible public bodies,“ according to the press office.

What about Fifa’s much-vaunted image

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Yet that, it would appear, seems in countenance with Fifa’s much-vaunted image which underpins the global agency’s advertising campaigns. The FIFA website for example states that it is „our mission” to create a better future. The site also mentions a “strategy of responsibility” while drawing attention to particular social problems and projects.

The British sports-sociologist Celia Brackenridge is a globally-acclaimed academic in the field of child protection. She is currently advising the investigation into now-dead BBC host Jimmy Saville as part of the UK’s biggest case of paedophile child abuse in years. In 2013 Brackenridge spearheaded a confidential report for a major charity which looked at how best to approach Fifa around the issue of child protection. While the issue of sexual exploitation around major sporting events is finally "gaining traction," says Brackenridge, FIFA have shown little interest in the topic.

Jérôme Valcke, Secretary General of FIFA and who – alongside FIFA President Sepp Blatter – is the most important decision maker at the world soccer authority, says: “The World Cup is not there to solve problems or create problems. A World Cup is a World Cup.” Even leading figures within the Zurich-based group regard this attitude as erroneous.

An insider says: „The Fifa cannot look away“

A man with white hair is sitting in a hotel cafe in Koblenz. Theo Zwanziger has narrowed somewhat but is still recognized by fans. Zwanziger was president of the German Football Association - DFB - for seven and a half years and is now part of a group of people who want FIFA to reform. One of the words Zwanziger often uses when talking about the upcoming World Cup and the issue of child prostitution is ‘responsibility’. Along with Bernardo Rosemeyer, the Fortaleza social worker, Zwanziger notes that FIFA is making large amounts of money. He feels that this huge, rich and ultimately powerful organization bears a social responsibility which it must fulfill.

“Football”, says Zwanziger, “is a major social event. Society makes football strong and that's why football has to give something back to society.” Fifa has to be prepared to address problems, says Zwanziger and it cannot look away. Some of Zwanziger’s colleagues think this is idealistic nonsense and the man himself remains a stubborn annoyance. Zwanziger appears to know that – but does not seem concerned.

In 2006, when the World Cup was hosted in Germany and Zwanziger was DFB President, people forced into prostitution became a hot-button issue. An alliance had formed specifically to launch a campaign to alert fans and people to the problem and wanted to inform them of the connected issues.

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The DFB initially refused and they had to be convinced by then-German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt. “We totally underestimated the problem and its magnitude at that time”, says Zwanziger. At the end Zwanziger was the patron of the campaign. Something like this doesn’t solve a problem, it was a small signal.

Child prostitutes were expelled from tourist areas

In Brazil it seems that the action necessary to tackle a problem of this scale is not happening. Tellingly, at the Confederations Cup last year, a mini-tournament many saw as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup itself, child prostitutes were summarily expelled from tourist areas and from around the stadium – after the tournament they were allowed to come back, and business returned as normal. As young girls parade on the sidewalks of Fortaleza today, while police patrol cars pass them by and punters drift slowly along the gutter, it is hard to see the results of action promised by a state which says it is addressing the problem.

Brazilians are still angry and have taken to the streets. For a long time many were looking forward to the World Cup but disillusionment has crept in. It is probably the most expensive World Cup ever and Brazilian authorities have poured billions into constructing and refurbishing twelve stadiums, even though FIFA called for only eight.

Some 12 cities in Brazil will have magnificent arenas, yet many do not have a first or second division team to make use of them. Many Brazilians are now demanding answers to questions: Why didn’t they built more hospitals and schools? Why didn't they invest more in projects to combat poverty and child prostitution?

A movement has started

In recent months a movement against sex tourism in Fortaleza has started to take shape. In many hotels there are signs warning that sex with minors is prohibited. In the Mercure Hotel in the east of the city all non checked-in guests must show their passports before they are granted entrance. In the hotel’s lobby the chairs and sofas have been changed so that each guest has to pass by the reception to access the elevator. Training has been provided for all employees. At the airport flyers are being distributed to tourists and there are signs encouraging people to call a hotline if observing any suspicious activity. However, the call usually goes unanswered.

Lisa has lost much of her hope. She now has something akin to a normal life but she is an exception. The organization “Vira Vida”, which gets child prostitutes off the streets, helped her to find an apprenticeship. She is now working as a logistician. She has a new boyfriend. But, even now, she doesn't tell him about what happened. „I'm afraid that he would kill me,” she says. In her opinion the government has not paid enough attention to enforcing the law. And few others have either. Even politicians have bought children for quick sex, she says.

In the evening, as the street lights flicker into action, dozens of girls and boys take their places along Avenida Juscelino Kubitscheck, close by the stadium. Taxis move along the thoroughfare at walking pace – moving from one child to the next.

*not her real name