In Switzerland, and particularly in Geneva, more and more young girls and boys are engaging in prostitution. Some are taken in organized networks, others act independently via social networks. An expanding phenomenon, which derives as much childhood professionals as those in the prostitution community.
A network of prostitution of minors was dismantled in early May in Geneva in a barber fair, reported on Tuesday the Geneva Tribune et 24 hours. Five people were arrested. Several minors would have been brought to prostitute it regularly. One of them is under the age of 15.
If this case is a network organized, elsewhere in French -speaking Switzerland, minors also prostitute themselves independently, often via social networks, a phenomenon up sharply.
The objective for these young people is to earn money quickly, but also, sometimes, to emancipate himself from parental authority, indicates a specialized educator of the miners’ protection service in the Canton of Geneva.
Associations on the front line, but poorly equipped
This phenomenon which is gaining momentum distresses the circles of childhood and prostitution. Invited Tuesday in the 12:30 p.m. RTS, Pénélope Giacardy, director of the Geneva Asspasie association, who supports sex workers, explains that there is a lack of training and coordination to effectively support the minors concerned.
“The various child protection services are, I believe, quite helpless. There is undoubtedly a lack of training, and they do not always know how to approach these situations with young people, nor how to best support them,” she said.
Associations like Aspasia, which usually support adults capable of making enlightened and granted choices concerning sex work, are faced with a new reality. “To take care of minors is relatively new to us. We have come across young people in the past, but it was rare. Today, situations are multiplying, and that is why we must think about the best way to accompany them and train accordingly,” adds Pénélope Giacardy.
Interview by: Anouk Pernet
Adaptation web: Miroslav Mares
