Child prostitution in Italy remains prevalent as nine people were arrested after police officials seized a suspected child prostitution ring that conducted its transactions through Internet contact sites. As pointed out by legal sources, the nine individuals were aged between 30 and 60, and resided in Milan and Pavia. Seven were already detained in jail while the other two has been put under house arrest.
Among these arrested individuals were “persons apparently above suspicion, without criminal records, as well as repeat offenders", as pointed out by the authorities. According to the Italian news site Ansa, the suspected prostitution ring reportedly included fathers, professionals, businessmen and factory workers, among others. Those who were arrested allegedly paid 50 euros, along with clothes and gadgets, for sex.
In 2016, Ansa also reported how the Save the Children NGO expressed their views over the unsuccessful approach towards addressing child prostitution in Italy. The group called for the Italian police to establish more specific plans in handling the issue of people paying money to have sex with minors. "We cannot get used to the repetition of these serious forms of violence that leave lasting signs on the minors involved," the group insisted.
In a recently published report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the number of children coming to Italy with no guardians or companions had doubled in 2016 compared to the previous year, putting them at risk for child prostitution, forced labor and the like. “These figures indicate an alarming trend of an increasing number of highly vulnerable children risking their lives to get to Europe,” Lucio Melandri, the Senior Emergency Manager at UNICEF, pointed out.
According to Melandri, there is a need for a collaborative response to address current systems that are ineffective in protecting children, especially in unfamiliar environments. Last year, approximately 25,800 children arrived unaccompanied in Italy, accounting for 91 percent of all children who came to the country as refugees.
In particular, majority of these unaccompanied young individuals came from Egypt, Nigeria, Gambia and Eritrea, some of which have already been victims of child prostitution. As pointed out by UNICEF, young girls remain at risk of sexual exploitation and abuse, including commercial exploitation by prostitution groups and criminal gangs. Many boys, meanwhile, are being forced to do manual labor.
