Tamatave, Saturday night, 10 o’clock. A truck stops at the seaside; girls step out. In Nosy Be, a tourist town in the west of Madagascar, 40% of young women have their first sexual experience in the context of prostitution—and, for many of them, this happens around the age of 14. Similarly, in the town of Morondava in western Madagascar, 50% of prostitutes are minors.
During the last decade, a number of cases of pedophilia have been reported. In 2009, two French men engaging in sexual tourism were accused and charged with corruption of a minor. In 2006, a Swiss tourist was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for pedophilia. This also made the front pages of the Madagascar press.
This epidemic extends beyond coastal towns, stretching across the whole island. According to UNICEF reports, trafficking at the national level continues. Young victims are taken from their family homes, often situated in poor rural areas; they are then sent to the most valuable tourist towns. Very often, traffickers suggest to parents living in poverty that they hand over care of their children to them in order to give them a better education.
A study by UNICEF also demonstrated that poverty, entrenched sexual discrimination, and the lack of monitoring of the application of laws has allowed for a boom in early sexual activity, which is no longer shocking.
This exploitation is undeniably “the worst form of child labor in Madagascar,” noted Dr.Dominique Rakotomanga, director of FISA or “Fianakaviana Sambatra,” a platform in Madagascar for the prevention of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
Written by: Anne-Muriel Raharimanana Translated by: Carolyn YOHN Proofread by :Elizabeth CARTHY |
