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How far will the juvenile prostitution network spread?
While the police continue the investigation, families fear for the children-victims

Stip- How far will the network of juvenile prostitution expand; a discovery made these days in Stip? This dilemma came out in public after the appearance of the scandalous seducing of juveniles by two girl pimps that offered them for sex and charged form 1.000 to 5.000 dinars to clients from the eastern part of the country. While police works on discovering the network, which most probably functioned for a longer period of time, parents continue to fear for the children-victims and their future. 

,, My daughter doesn’t leave the house; all day long she is in her room and like her friends is under severe stress. I fear for her future” confessed the mother of one of the two girls involved in the chain of prostitution. The center for social work decided to return the children to their families since there was no indication of abuse at home. However according to the experts and psychiatrists, institutions should not forget that the children are only victims and that they need professional help to overcome the fear, traumas and blame form the environment they live in. According to them, the biggest barer for this is the non-existence of shelters in the country for care of children-victims, where they would get the needed professional help for overcoming the traumas.

That the case is not finished and could spread further is confirmed also in SIA- Stip. At present it is uncertain whether in the chain of juvenile prostitution other children-victims were involved and the length of the list of clients who in the last years were paid for sexual relations with the minors. In Stip they say that the prostitution in the city is more spread then what has been discovered till now. The problem is that now there are more sophisticated forms for abuse comment the citizens…

,, In the society with serious social imbalance in which only a small group owns capital, and everything else barely manages financially through the day, in conditions where young women daily through electronic media as top virtue are served the easy aspects of live, where women’s sexuality dominates, the selling of the young body is being accepted as a virtue of the new time where there are no moral standers. Thus, the need for strengthening the fight against this kind of crime” say the psychiatrists.

            The chain of juvenile prostitution which obliviously has functioned for a longer period of time is revealed after the report of the mother who noticed that something peculiar is happening to her child

            ,, We discovered the case of my minor daughter by accident. Through one of her telephone conversations, that appeared to me inappropriate for her age. I took her telephone and a serious male voice from the other side of the phone said: “say doll.” Then it became clear to me that something is wrong and I reported the case to the police. From here the story unfolds”, says the mother of the minor.

            Things became serious when the child that is less than fourteen went missing for more than 24 hours. ,, When I took her mobile my daughter ran away from home. We found her 24 hours later with her friend in Ohrid where a taxi driver took them. Then both went to the police where they gave the statement’’ said the mother confessing the unfortunate events in their family.

            The mother who is over forty, said that occasionally she would find 500 dinars in her daughters purse even though she knew that she had not given the child any money. The girl clamed that the money was given to her by her friend

,, She is a calm and shy girl but for the past month she began coming in late and I started wondering why. She told me that all youngsters come home at midnight. I didn’t notice anything suspicious, she didn’t have expensive cloths, she didn’t have money or perfume’’ says the mother, stating that the girl comes form a normal and stable family.

            The experts and psychiatrists have a divided opinion whether there is a profile of the family where the children are subject to abuse or simply all families are different in their own way. While part of the activists for protection of children’s rights say that the dysfunctional families and the bad economic and social position more easily leads the children into prostitution, experience of the psychiatrists show that these cases are more characteristic for prominent families where relations are close and there is less control over the children from the parents.

            ,, Such manifestations of juvenile prostitution can be found in bigger and smaller environments. But the citizens must report these cases because silence is not the solution, the next victim could be their child!” said Dragi Zmijanac, from the First Children’s Embassy ,,Megjashi”

             According to him the whole system for the protection of the children is dysfunctional, and all institutions deny responsibility.

            ,, The centers for social work argue that they can not intervene in families if the case is not reported, schools focus only on the education of children, police respond when a case is reported, and the parents are too busy working and don’t have time for their children. Who then will take care of the children? “, asked Zmijanac, stating that the question in case is a serious problem and greater attention should be given by all competent institutions.