BBC News Online: World: Americas

Soaring child prostitution in Colombia

The United Nations says some thirty-five thousand children in Colombia are working as prostitutes.

A spokesman for the UN's children's fund, UNICEF, Karel de Rooy, said many were as young as nine years old and had often been victims of sexual abuse.

The official said that the so-called sexual tourism had been growing in Colombia.

He said the clients were often middle-aged foreigners who paid the child-prostitutes around six US dollars.

He said the children were often addicted to drugs.

UNICEF estimates there are some ten-million child prostitutes worldwide.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service