According to a report by The Huffington Post, one of Brazil's darkest crimes is expected to rise as it expects an onslaught of fans for the 2014 World Cup.
An estimated 600,000 people are set to arrive in Brazil for one of the biggest sporting events in the world. However, the large number of visitors in the country is not just because of the celebrated tournament, but is said to be due to the ease of access to child prostitutes in the nation.
The Huffington Post said that prostitution has been recognized as a legal trade in the country for those who are 18 years old or older. However, advocates have said that a number of people who have been selling sex on the streets are nowhere near Brazil's legal age. Desperate girls as young as 10 years old reportedly see the World Cup as an opportunity to earn an auspicious amount of money due to the influx of men in the country. Citing a separate article by the Mirror, child prostitutes in Brazil are selling sex in one of the host's cities, Recife, for as little over $2, or 1.30 British pounds.
Aside from the rise of child prostitution, it is said that a surge of drug use will also be seen, as some of the prostitutes take drugs to be able to go on.
Lorissa, a child sex worker, told the Mirror, "Sniffing the glue makes me feel dizzy and numb and it stops me feeling hungry so I don't need to eat. It helps me cope with the violence and danger on the streets."
On the subject of underage prostitute in Brazil, state prosecutor Antonia Lima Sousa said, "These girls come from extreme poverty, a culture of social exclusion and a tradition of profound disrespect for women."
Executive director Judy Harris Kluger of Sanctuary for Families believes that any sporting event for that matter could very well drive up crimes such as prostitution and drug abuse, and can happen anywhere. She wrote in a blog for the Huffington Post, "To understand the dynamics of human trafficking is to understand that events such as the Super Bowl could never not be breeding grounds for sexual exploitation. On the most basic level, any location that sees an exponential increase in large numbers of men traveling for entertainment will receive a proportional increase in those who purchase sex."
