"Sexy Ukrainian Women Looking for Love": The Fight Against Sex Tourism

By Marina Kamenev , Ms. Magazine. Posted June 11, 2009.

"The Ukrainian newspapers were angry, saying we were creating problems, talking about something that didn’t exist," says Hutsol. "But the Western press [Reuters and AFP] actually looked at the problem for what it was, and only then did Ukrainian papers follow."

The rise in sex tourism has also led to the growth of industries such as child pornography and child prostitution. "I can see a direct correlation between tourism and child prostitution," says Iryna Konchenkova, head of the international nonprofit School of Equal Opportunities in Ukraine. According to Konchenkova, 11 percent of prostitutes are between the ages of 11 and 15, while 19 percent are between 16 and 17: "So I would say 30 percent of prostitutes in Ukraine are underage. …Street kids get attracted to this. They get fed, they get cleaned, they are warm; some think it’s one of the better things that has happened to them." Konchenkova has had many cases where children became upset when they were no longer wanted by pimps: "A 14-year-old girl told me in an aggrieved voice that she was considered too old to work in pornography anymore."

Konchenkova adds that the children’s values are a problem. "When you ask [these girls] where they see themselves in 10 years, they say a nice house, a floor-length dress, an expensive car," she says. "They see Western commercials of luxury life and they want it. At the same time these girls get only threes [C’s] at school, so they must change either their intentions or their attitude towards money."

Women are drawn to accepting "dubious" proposals from traffickers by the desire to make money, provide for families and see other countries, says Katya Cherepakha, the social assistance coordinator at the international women’s rights center, La Strada Ukraine. An exacerbating factor is Ukraine’s relative poverty: The World Bank-estimated average annual purchasing power of Ukrainians is $7,000 per person, compared to $46,000 in the U.S. Women are also misled by lack of information about the true nature of trafficking and deceptive examples of successful emigrants. "Traffickers are getting smarter," says Cherepakha. "They give a piece of true information—about the process of employment, for example—but all the rest of the information is not true." Women who have a lack of familial support or problems at home, such as domestic violence, are especially susceptible to such offers.

In 11 years, La Strada’s helpline has received 38,500 phone calls, 64 percent from people applying for work overseas and checking on how safe a country is. But 4 percent are from people searching for loved ones, and another 4 percent are from family members trying to get help to trafficked relatives, ranging from paying for court cases to getting them to an airport.

Hutsol wishes Ukrainian women would be more suspicious of little-known men making promises of any sort: "My own friends think that if they meet a foreigner they will have the perfect life. …But in reality they meet men, mostly from Turkey, who sleep with them, promise them the world and don’t even leave a phone number. That’s another problem with Ukraine having a reputation for beautiful, available women: Sex tourism isn’t always solely about prostitution."

Pick up a copy of the Spring 2009 issue of Ms. on newsstands, or have a copy sent to your door by joining the Ms. community at www.msmagazine.com.

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