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Panorama.S2014E22.Brazil.In.The.Shadow.Of.The.Stadiums
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00:00The world's biggest football tournament is a week away hosted by the world's most successful
00:11footballing nation.
00:15But in the shadow of the multi-million pound World Cup stadiums there's a darker side to
00:20life in Brazil, a world of poverty, drugs, violence and child exploitation.
00:49The number of children involved in prostitution in Brazil runs into the hundreds of thousands.
01:14Tonight Panorama reveals the shame of a country where children openly tout for business on
01:19the streets in full view of the police.
01:34And where hotels flout the law banning underage prostitution.
01:49Even though they are victims of sexual exploitation some of the children we've spoken to are happy
01:54to be identified on camera.
01:57With the advice of children's charities and with the consent and support of their parents
02:02In the UK this film will show the faces of some of the victims in order to highlight
02:09their plight.
02:28Sunset over San Paolo.
02:32The largest city in the southern hemisphere, home to almost 20 million people.
02:41As darkness descends young girls start to appear on the streets.
02:47They're here to sell their bodies.
02:58We've just spotted two young girls that appear to be prostitutes.
03:02They also look like the smoking crack cocaine.
03:10Prostitution is legal in Brazil but only with those over the age of 18.
03:17Among the girls on the streets is 14-year-old Joyce.
03:24This is your home?
03:27At her mother's invitation and with an aid worker present Joyce agrees to show us where
03:31she lives.
03:32Her family are squatters in a half-built abandoned tower block.
03:37Most of the block is in complete darkness.
03:41So which apartment is yours, Joyce?
03:44This one up here?
03:52It's like a war zone.
04:00The building is full of drug dealers and crack addicts and we have to negotiate access with
04:05an armed gang who control the block.
04:08In the building we can't film, we can't make a film.
04:17This is your house?
04:18This is unbelievable.
04:19It's, I don't know how to describe it, it's like a derelict apartment block with people
04:34living in it.
04:36This is Joyce's home?
04:46Hello.
04:48Wow.
04:53Joyce's two young brothers, aged 5 and 7, have been left alone in the apartment.
05:00While their mother is out at work, Joyce is supposed to look after them.
05:04But to get money to buy drugs, she often heads to the streets to sell herself.
05:22How much do the men pay you for sex?
05:27That's around £13.
05:30And where do you have sex with them?
05:34In a hotel, at home, on the street?
05:36I don't know if it's here, but it's far from here.
05:43Joyce's apartment is just a few hundred metres from San Paolo's brand new stadium, where
05:48the World Cup will kick off next week.
05:54As thousands of football fans descend on the area, there's likely to be even more prostitution
05:59on the streets.
06:02Will a lot of children be selling sex during the World Cup?
06:24Joyce and her friends are among a huge number of children involved in prostitution in Brazil.
06:29Estimated in the hundreds of thousands.
06:32Despite government promises of a crackdown, charities say there's no sign numbers have
06:36declined in the run-up to the World Cup.
06:44The next day, we're invited back to the block to meet Joyce's mother, Debra.
06:49And the true scale of the squalor is even more apparent.
06:59SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
07:05What's wrong?
07:07SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
07:21The family have squatted here for six months.
07:25And Debra is struggling to cope.
07:29SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
07:39Debra says Joyce's drug use has seen her behaviour become increasingly volatile.
07:44SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
08:00SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
08:13Debra's trying to earn enough money to get her family out of the block as soon as possible.
08:18SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
08:29SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
08:33While living in the block,
08:35Debra feels powerless to stop her daughter's drug-taking.
08:39Along with the addicts, there are also several pimps here,
08:43controlling girls like Joyce.
08:47SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
08:50SHE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
08:56This human misery is found in a country
08:59which until recently had one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
09:04Yet around a fifth of the population of Sao Paulo
09:07still live in favelas or slums.
09:12Some of the most extreme poverty
09:14lies in the shadow of the new £250m stadium.
09:24Miserable conditions, hunger, the lack of real public policies,
09:29inspection, prevention.
09:31That is why children are selling their bodies here in Brazil.
09:38Congresswoman Lilian Sarr has just released the findings
09:41of Brazil's first national parliamentary inquiry into child prostitution.
09:46Her research took her to all 12 World Cup cities.
09:53What we have seen during these trips left us flabbergasted
09:57because sexual exploitation and sex tourism
10:00are visible in Brazil in an endemic form,
10:03growing all the time,
10:05and we're fighting so that the normalisation,
10:08the acceptance of this sexual exploitation
10:11does not jeopardise Brazilian childhood.
10:21Part of that fight is with those cashing in on the child sex trait,
10:26including Hetalia's.
10:30So-called love motels are often used by men who pick up underage girls.
10:35Rooms can be rented by the hour for just a few pounds,
10:38even though it's illegal for these hotels to allow anyone inside
10:42who's under the age of 18.
10:45With her mother's permission,
10:47Joyce offers to take me to one of the love motels she says she's visited before.
10:51I play the part of her client to put the law to the test.
10:57Charity workers stay in contact with us throughout filming.
11:06Oh, my God!
11:08No, one out, one out. One out.
11:11The receptionist should, by law, ask to see Joyce's proof of age.
11:17With no questions asked, we're given a key to a bedroom.
11:21Joyce appears to know her way around the motel.
11:29And we provide a free condom with the room.
11:36THEY SPEAK PORTUGUESE
11:49Joyce tells me she is far from the youngest girl
11:52who comes to the motel with strangers.
12:06If we don't do what they tell us to do,
12:09they end up doing things to us.
12:12And it goes on and on.
12:19You told me they get violent. They burnt your head.
12:22Ah, yes.
12:24And your back. You've got a scar on your back.
12:29Here, too.
12:31Did a man do that to you? How did that happen?
12:35HE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
12:49The charity workers who were with us as we filmed
12:52are now trying to improve Joyce's situation.
12:58There are many more love motels around the São Paulo Arena,
13:02as well as World Cup stadiums,
13:04which have cost around £2bn to build or modernise.
13:08Joyce's mother, Deborah,
13:10is among many Brazilians angry at this vast expense.
13:33Deborah, do a lot of people feel like you,
13:36that the government is wasting money
13:39rather than helping families and helping children like Joyce?
13:53The government say hosting the World Cup will boost the economy.
13:57And the money they've spent on stadiums
13:59is tiny compared to what they're spending to tackle poverty.
14:06But in this football-mad nation,
14:08widespread protests have overshadowed the build-up to the World Cup.
14:15We feel like we've been robbed by the politicians and by FIFA.
14:19We have many problems that are not being solved
14:22and this money could have a better use.
14:25No health care, no jobs.
14:28Everything, no justice.
14:33We're angry because we lack a good education system,
14:36a good health system, reliable security.
14:40I guess people are just getting to their limit, you know?
14:43The anger is targeted
14:45at how slowly Brazil's inequalities are being addressed.
14:49We head to the poorest region of the country, the tropical north-east,
14:53to visit Fortaleza, another World Cup venue.
14:59Behind the tourist façade, it's one of the world's most violent cities.
15:07Renovating the Arena Castelão has cost around $100 million.
15:11It's the largest stadium in the world.
15:15Renovating the Arena Castelão has cost around £150 million.
15:22Another impressive stadium right in the heart of another area
15:27well-known for its poverty and child prostitution.
15:34Fortaleza is a favoured destination for sex tourists.
15:45We spot two girls on the street, right outside a police station.
15:50As we get close, it's clear they're very young.
15:58Along with the charity worker, we play the part of British tourists
16:02and they quickly offer us a programme, the local slang for sex.
16:14THEY SPEAK PORTUGUESE
16:18They look much younger.
16:34Do you have no ID?
16:37No identification.
16:39I can't believe I'm having conversations like this with girls that look so young.
16:44Some look younger than others, but none of them have any ID whatsoever.
16:49And how much would it be for a programme?
16:54It's R$150, which is about £30-40.
16:59No, but I need to be afraid.
17:07No, no, don't stop.
17:12Don't stop.
17:14It's been a long time.
17:16It's been a long time and I'm afraid of everything.
17:29We soon hear further evidence the police turn a blind eye.
17:33In the heart of the tourist area by the seafront,
17:36we come across a young boy clearly touting for business with a friend.
17:42How old are you?
17:48We explain we're a film crew and he agrees to talk to us,
17:52as long as we protect his identity.
17:54Why are you a prostitute? Why do you do this? You're so young.
18:03Do you not get scared having sex with grown men?
18:13I don't know if I'll ever go back.
18:15I don't know if I'll ever go back.
18:17I don't know if I'll ever go back.
18:19I don't know if I'll ever go back.
18:21I don't know if I'll ever go back.
18:23I don't know if I'll ever go back or if I'll die there.
18:27My life is a life I regret.
18:31But I can't go back.
18:37I do.
18:38I have three pimples.
18:41If one day I give up, she'll kill me.
18:44My life is over. My success is over. Everything's over.
18:48She knows where I live and where I live.
18:51If I don't go, she does something to my family.
18:55It's like drug trafficking.
18:59It kills the whole family. It's a tragedy.
19:02I have to go. It's my life.
19:05The police keep walking past.
19:07They haven't inquired why we're talking.
19:09They don't seem to be interested that you're here selling sex.
19:13Why is that?
19:15For me, they see us doing it and want to take a little bit of it.
19:20They pay you for programmes?
19:37We have no way of verifying these allegations,
19:40but the parliamentary inquiry into child prostitution
19:43has found that the Brazilian police are often part of the problem.
19:51I was shocked because I found that the police themselves
19:56cover up these exploiters, the pimps, male and female.
20:02Impunity is rife.
20:05There's also a lack of effective supervision within the judiciary.
20:13The police child protection unit in Fortaleza
20:16insists it is tackling the issue of police complacency.
20:23This is not supposed to happen.
20:26This is not the guidance they're given.
20:29Recently, the Department of Public Security
20:32trained many police officers.
20:35It was a very productive training
20:37exactly on this issue of child sexual exploitation.
20:42I'm not saying that every police officer is guilty of this,
20:46but we have filmed police officers
20:49walking past child prostitutes,
20:52turning a blind eye to what's going on.
20:55For me, this information is strange.
20:58In every incident concerning a child or teenager
21:01involved in a situation of sexual exploitation,
21:04police officers have to immediately report it
21:07to the police child services.
21:09What is perhaps more shocking
21:12is some of the children that we have met and interviewed,
21:17they allege that some of the officers pay them for sex.
21:21What's your reaction to that?
21:27Because we have a very rigid inspector general office,
21:30you can be sure that if a report like this reaches any inspector,
21:34this police officer will be removed.
21:38Fortaleza's police and social services take us on a patrol
21:42to show how they're dealing with child prostitution
21:45ahead of the World Cup.
21:53Even in daylight,
21:54young girls are selling themselves around the stadium.
21:57The youngest they find,
21:59they're selling themselves to the police.
22:02So we've just been told the plan now
22:04is to take this girl back to her parents.
22:06All they seem to be able to do is to warn these girls
22:09not to get involved in prostitution.
22:11There's only so much they can do.
22:13Social services admit resources are being used
22:16to help these girls.
22:18They're not only helping them,
22:20they're helping them to get them to the police.
22:23They're helping them to get them to the police.
22:26They're helping them to get them to the police.
22:29Social services admit resources are scarce,
22:32and we're told it's highly likely the 14-year-old
22:35will be back on the streets within days.
22:43On the luxurious beachfront,
22:45World Cup teams will be checking in in a few days' time.
22:51But just one block behind
22:53is one of the city's most dangerous favelas.
22:57It's called Big Black Eight, slang for a .38-calibre gun.
23:04Aid worker Andrew Fanstone runs a project in the heart of the favela,
23:08helping children escape the cycle of drugs and prostitution.
23:14This is one of the only communities in the city
23:16that don't have any health workers coming here because of the violence.
23:20Ambulances won't enter in here.
23:22Even the Coca-Cola truck didn't come in.
23:25Coca-Cola truck doesn't arrive in the place. It is dangerous.
23:30Even police rarely enter the favela, which is controlled by drugs gangs.
23:37You just look around and there's just deals taking place absolutely everywhere.
23:44And a lot of these, like this one in the...
23:46Just now. They've just brought drugs right beside us just now.
23:49I mean, it's just happening all around you.
23:53I've never seen anything like it.
24:00So it goes on down here as well. It keeps going.
24:03It goes on.
24:04So all the drug barons are in the middle, protected by...
24:07Exits.
24:08The entrance.
24:09So we're right in the middle here.
24:15Can we quickly film in here?
24:17This is, like, one of the drug dens they sit around this table.
24:23So you can see all the stuff on the table, which they use for crack and stuff.
24:28So this one here is to burn the...
24:30They call it peta.
24:33This addict has recently taken the decision to send his one-year-old son away from the favela.
24:52We've got to leave.
24:53Somebody's just come here to use this crack den to take drugs,
24:56so we've got to go.
25:01Everywhere we turn in the favela, we meet drug addicts.
25:06This room here is where this family lives.
25:09She's got one child that lives with her at the moment and her other sister.
25:13So these two ladies, unfortunately, have gone missing.
25:17One child that lives with her at the moment and her other sister.
25:20So these two ladies, unfortunately, use drugs during the day, crack cocaine.
25:26This is where it all starts, really.
25:28This is, like, the factory of where the prostitution starts.
25:35Oh, my God, it's just like a rubbish dump.
25:37It is. They live in a rubbish dump.
25:39It's a hole, really.
25:41Shall we go now?
25:44With many of the parents on drugs, prostitution is common.
25:48Many of the children here, their family is involved in sort of the business,
25:52so their aunt maybe prostitutes their mum or their gran.
25:56And so it just normalises something, which to us is very unhealthy, unnormal.
26:02For them, it's just, like, it's a way of life.
26:05So that's why we've got to show them it's not right and give them an opportunity to change.
26:11Keep going.
26:13There's a girl here just totally, totally out of it.
26:16She's obviously just done a hit of crack cocaine.
26:19She's burying her head.
26:21She's crying. She's obviously very distressed.
26:28She's got tuberculosis as well, which a lot of them have there.
26:32Just a dark, damp environment with lots of drugs.
26:41There's a network of open sewers like this all over the favela.
26:47And when the heavens open, as you can see, they overflow
26:51and all the rubbish has run down this hill towards the end.
26:54It's not a place to be wandering around in bare feet either,
26:56and the stench of human excrement is quite overwhelming.
27:02It's a bit of a nightmare.
27:03It's not a place to be wandering around in bare feet either,
27:05and the stench of human excrement is quite overwhelming.
27:14The toxic mix of poverty, drug addiction and sexual exploitation
27:19leaves a terrible toll.
27:21Andrew takes us to a woman clearly on the edge.
27:3324-year-old Aline has been a crack addict
27:35and involved in prostitution since she was 12.
28:04Throughout most of Aline's adult life,
28:07the Brazilian economy has been growing at an impressive rate.
28:10So where's the help for the many like her?
28:18The government says it's spending vast amounts on national programmes
28:22to lift millions out of extreme poverty,
28:25but admits it's an enormous challenge.
28:28The most controversial part of Brazil's strategy is pacification,
28:32the attempt to take control of favelas.
28:45We've come to Rio de Janeiro.
28:47This is BOPI, the elite military police.
28:51On a patrol around one of their showcase projects,
28:54the recently pacified Villa Kennedy in the north of the city.
28:58For years, drug gangs have fought each other
29:01for control of favelas like this one.
29:04The idea of these operations is to try and drive the gangs out.
29:14BOPI entered Villa Kennedy two months ago
29:16in an attempt to secure the favela.
29:19They say, job done.
29:21SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
29:52SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
30:03Are you glad he's here? Yeah?
30:06Yes.
30:08SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
30:21SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
30:41In taking over the favelas,
30:43the police believe they are liberating these communities
30:46rather than controlling them.
30:51SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
31:13BOPI will soon withdraw from Villa Kennedy,
31:16handing over to the civilian police.
31:21If this operation goes to plan,
31:23the community will see the benefit
31:25of one of the largest welfare programmes in the world,
31:28which has already reached over 50 million Brazilians.
31:31This, say the government,
31:33is the key to ending the exploitation of children.
31:40Overcoming all of this is going to have a direct effect
31:43on the inclusion of these children.
31:47It will put an end to this cycle
31:50of needing to enter into a socially unacceptable world
31:53in order to be able to survive.
32:00But such a visible armed presence
32:02has led to allegations of excessive force and brutality
32:05in some of the pacified favelas.
32:10Maguinos is one of Rio's best-known favelas,
32:13dubbed the Gaza Strip due to its violent history.
32:18It was pacified in late 2012.
32:21No government PR tour this time.
32:24The situation is tense from the moment we enter.
32:44While they call these favelas pacified,
32:48it's not quite the real situation.
32:51What you're seeing here is a typical everyday occurrence
32:54where the police approach a man, they're nervous, he's nervous,
32:57and then other people, other local residents,
33:00start to throw rocks at the police.
33:02And that's just a prime example of the tensions here.
33:05There's two police officers arriving now, holding their guns.
33:08SHOUTING
33:38SHOUTING
33:44Does he think that the police left because we were filming?
33:56The police withdraw and the situation doesn't escalate further.
34:00We've no idea if the police had shot at the boys or not.
34:05Across the city, the number of people killed by the police
34:08has risen dramatically over the last year.
34:35Pacification has made a real difference in some favelas.
34:39But so far, only 38 have been pacified in Rio,
34:43out of an estimated 600.
34:46And there's little sign things are improving
34:49for hundreds of thousands of children across Brazil
34:52involved in prostitution.
34:55For many, it's business as usual.
35:05DRAMATIC MUSIC
35:10We drive out on the BR116,
35:13the main highway running almost the entire length of Brazil,
35:17from Fortaleza in the north, beyond Rio to the southern border.
35:21It's dubbed the Highway to Hell
35:24because of the sheer number of children selling their bodies here.
35:30This highway is nearly 3,000 miles long
35:33and a recent police survey discovered almost 300 areas
35:38where child prostitution was taking place.
35:41And that means, on average,
35:43children can be found offering sex nearly every 10 miles.
35:47DRAMATIC MUSIC
36:01In an overnight truck park near the small town of Salgueiro,
36:05we see girls entering a bar full of truck drivers.
36:09We film them working the tables and flirting with the men.
36:15Several of the girls appear to be very young.
36:28Police patrols regularly check out truck parks and bars along the highway.
36:33Looking for victims of exploitation.
37:04Just off the BR116, the local Child Protection Service
37:08introduces to children they're trying to help return to a normal life.
37:13This girl has just turned 12.
37:25So that's your house?
37:28Flower?
37:30And this is the sky. It's very good.
37:37She seems like a typical child,
37:39but social services tell me how grim her childhood has been.
38:01DRAMATIC MUSIC
38:09Just down the road, we meet another child, a 13-year-old.
38:13She's been diagnosed as HIV positive.
38:18Do you understand why people are worried about you going to the petrol station
38:22and the bars and speaking to the truck drivers and spending time with them?
38:31Why do you do what you do?
38:33Because you're so young and it's so dangerous.
38:48And there is another huge danger for the children of the BR116.
38:54The Brazilian parliamentary report
38:56highlights that children are being trafficked to World Cup host cities.
39:03We're going to have millions of tourists throughout Brazil,
39:07but we have these sexual exploitation gangs
39:10which are going to try and use the tourists,
39:13some of whom come over here with a preconceived idea
39:16which was sold to them about Brazil,
39:18that here having sex with children is easy.
39:22This is 15-year-old Gabriela.
39:25She says earlier this year she was lured from her remote town
39:28600 miles from Rio, thinking she'd be working in a coffee shop.
39:52Once in Rio, she says she was forced to sell herself to tourists
39:56along Copacabana Beach.
40:21Gabriela tells me that every penny she made through prostitution
40:25was taken by her pimps.
40:39After three weeks, Gabriela did manage to escape
40:42and contacted her mum, Alvani.
40:45Alvani is now happy for her daughter to share her story with us
40:49and highlight the problem of trafficking.
41:19Gabriela and her mother may be reunited,
41:22but in a country criticised for failing to tackle sexual exploitation,
41:26there are thousands more children with little hope of escaping the sex trade.
41:37The World Cup, just a week away now,
41:39has done more than anything to highlight the dramatic gap
41:42between Brazil's rich and poor.
41:46But perhaps there is no greater shame for Brazil's government
41:49than the many children involved in prostitution.
41:53They may be known as child prostitutes.
41:56The reality is they are simply victims.
42:04Sexual exploitation of children and adolescents
42:07is a cruel way to take away a kid's childhood and dreams.
42:12It's a life lost.
42:16Since we first met 14-year-old Joyce,
42:19her case has been referred to a social worker from a children's charity.
42:23She and her family are clinging to the hope that life will soon change.
42:46Panorama is back on Monday at 7.30 on BBC One.
42:50Welcome to Rio continues to look at what life is really like in the favelas.
42:55Tuesday at 9 on BBC Two.
42:57Download the series so far on BBC iPlayer.
43:15.
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