World Cup Africa 'could encourage child sex tourism'

15/08/2007

South Africa is being warned that it could become a magnet for paedophiles when it hosts the football World Cup in 2010.

Child sex tourism is a global phenomenon, but many African countries are particularly at risk given their high levels of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.

The executive director of Fair Trade in Tourism SA, Jennifer Seif, acknowledged that South Africa is on a 'hotspot list' of African nations struggling with child sex exploitation.

"Africa could become the new Thailand. There is a big risk, a big threat," she said, adding that the bulk of sex tourists are western men who sleep with 14 or 15 year old girls, though younger children are also at risk.

And while Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal and Gambia all face a similar increase in child sex tourism, the anticipated influx of millions of football fans to South Africa in 2010 has added a new dimension to the problem.

South African police insist the protection of women and children has always been, and will continue to be, a national priority.

But Mr Seif is calling for specific action. She has urged her nation and others to sign up to a code of conduct which would see tourism staff being given specific training about how to spot and prevent incidents of child sex abuse among foreign visitors. Kenya is so far the only African country to endorse the code.

Child victims of sexual abuse run the risk of falling pregnant or contracting sexually-transmitted diseases such as Aids/HIV.

South Africa has one of the highest ratios of HIV sufferers in the world, with 12 per cent of its population currently infected with the virus.


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