FORTALEZA (BDCi) – Prostitution is legal in Brazil. However, paying to have sex with a minor of 17 years-old or younger is illegal.
Due to widespread poverty in Brazil’s poorest favelas, young girls are turning to pimps that force them to engage in sex for money.
Girls as young as 11 are dressed by their pimps to look older than they are.
Many of the girls are homeless drug addicts who fall into prostitution between the ages of ten to 14, sometimes escaping a bad home life.
Approximately half a million children have worked as prostitutes in Brazil since 2012.
Several non-profit organizations have sprung up with campaigns to combat the anticipated rise in prostitution during the World Cup, among them UNICEF and the European Commission.
About 600,000 tourists are in Brazil for the World Cup.
By: Diego Díaz Source: New York Daily News Photo: CNN 19 June 2014
9:00 a.m. P.D.T.