World Vision, U.S. Government Agencies Partner to Combat Child Sex Tourists
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 20, 2004 | Contact: Gardi Ipema Wilks (708) 366-8389 gardi@wilkspr.com |
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. citizens who sexually exploit children while traveling abroad are the target of a new joint initiative launched by World Vision in partnership with the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This partnership is one component of World Vision’s Child Sex Tourism Prevention Project introduced this year in Cambodia, Costa Rica, Thailand and the United States
Worldwide, an estimated 2 million children are trapped in the commercial sex industry. Many of these children, some as young as five years old, live in poor countries that receive foreign tourists who come to sexually exploit children. An estimated 25 percent of these “child sex tourists” are from the United States.
“This program is intended to deter U.S. citizens from exploiting children overseas by sending a clear message that offenders risk significant prison time for their actions,” said World Vision’s Joe Mettimano, director of the Child Sex Tourism Prevention Project. “For those who don’t heed the project’s deterrence message, World Vision is assisting ICE in their work to identify and prosecute child sex tourists from the United States.”
Some of those who engage in child sex tourism are pedophiles who regularly travel abroad for the purpose of having sex with children. But many of these men travel for vacation or legitimate business purposes, but decide to experiment with the local sex trade.
Michael J. Garcia, assistant secretary of ICE, added, “Through our department’s Operation Predator initiative, we are drawing on the full spectrum of cyber, intelligence, investigative, and detention and removal functions of ICE to target those who exploit children. By establishing and strengthening relationships between ICE and humanitarian groups like World Vision, we enhance our crime prevention activities overseas. We’re sending a message to these individuals that if you engage in sexual activity or abuse a child – whether in the U.S. or overseas – you will go to prison here in the United States.”
World Vision’s Child Sex Tourism Prevention Project is now in operation in the United States and Cambodia and will begin in Costa Rica and Thailand in coming months. The project’s detterence messages are being placed in the path of would-be sex tourists, including airports, in-flight videos on airlines, television, and roadside billboards in destination countries. Also, ICE is training World Vision staff overseas so that the organization can provide the extra sets of “eyes and ears” to help ICE pursue these sexual predators.
“This project is a powerful example of public-private partnership,” stated John Miller, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State. “The State Department is committed to combating the exploitation of children overseas, especially by U.S. Citizens. Our partnership with World Vision helps us to work toward ending this scourge against children.”
World Vision is bringing together national governments and law enforcement from both the United States and sex tour destination countries to establish a united-front in combating the sexual exploitation of children. Non-governmental organizations and ordinary citizens are joining in the cause.
“Sexual predators should no longer feel safe or immune from prosecution,” World Vision’s Mettimano said. “The partnership among non-governmental organizations like World Vision and the U.S. Government are closing-in on these offenders and the days of impunity are coming to an end.”
Background: Founded in 1950, World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization, serving the world’s poorest children and families in nearly 100 countries. World Vision maintains child protection, health, education, agriculture, water, sanitation, and small business projects that reach millions of people in their communities, helping transform the lives of children and families in need without regard to their religious beliefs, gender, race, or ethnic background.
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