Sunday sex tourism

In Kiev, 18.5% of female students work part-time as prostitutes to earn money for their education. The reason behind this trend is the high cost of a good education in private universities and the low income of their families. There is strong reaction from some social groups and student groups against this trend, but this trend is spreading like a virus among poor students who see this as a means to paying for their expensive costs of higher education.
Euro 2012, which Ukraine co-hosted with Poland, encouraged youth into prostitution, because this event provided a big chance for female students to start their career successfully, and they managed to establish good contacts in Europe for their future business. Westernization of the Ukrainian society without providing social security to people is playing havoc with the social fabric of this Eastern European country where the government is withdrawing support to people in all important sectors including education and health.
Selling sweets on the street is nowhere near as profitable as selling their bodies, unfortunately. The prime reason why female students are involved in this is poverty. Parents are aware of this. They know a lot of the time what the choices are – and they choose to accept their girls into prostitution.
The typical age of students who earn money through prostitution is 26 years to 30 years—indicating that master’s degree and post master’s degree students are mostly involved in this trend. There is another age group that is 20-25, but this group is mostly involved for sexual pleasure and European exposure, rather than just for making money for education and families.
According to a study conducted by a team of scientists in Berlin Studienkolleg zu institute, 52.3% of students are involved in prostitution and in parallel have a permanent boyfriend or girlfriend. 48.9% of them describe themselves as heterosexual, 13.3% as gay, and 37.8% – as bisexual.
The study also indicates that young Ukrainian women are increasingly involved in prostitution. There are thousands of websites created by students to sell themselves in the prostitution market. They put candid and sexy photos and detailed descriptions of services including stats of their bodies online, while ordinary prostitutes work with or through a pimp, and only on weekends.
Ukrainian students have flooded the European market with prostitution nets and even resorts in the Middle East are full of them. In a Middle Eastern newspaper there was another report on this same issue that indicates that lack of money and high fees in Ukrainian institutions are compelling female students to indulge in prostitution. “Girls aged 18-25 work part-time in prostitution on weekends for several reasons,” said Julia Tsarevskaya, the head of the organization, Convictus Ukraine, working in the field of HIV/AIDS. “Basically it’s either a lack of money to go to university, or the lack of funds to buy expensive branded things,” she said.
The number of these “independent prostitutes” in the country is estimated at several hundred women. “At the end of each week at Bergamo airport, located near Milan, on average, 25-30 girls come from the Ukraine,” said Giovanni de Roma, the commander of the Italian Financial Guard units.
Sex tourism in Europe is largely supported by Ukrainian workers, and this tourism is most often called “Sunday sex tourism.” Prostitutes themselves say that they earn abroad many times more than at home. “The Turks provide a car and driver for the duration of the work, security, and fees are three times higher than Ukrainian,” says Mila from Kiev, a sex worker.
She is of the view that these trips bring in $5 million each. The girl even has accumulated enough for a Honda Accord valued at $33,000, and her minimum fee for an hour of “work” ranges from $300-500.
According to Elvira Mruchkovskoy, head of the NGO “Suchasnik,” these girls get up to $10,000 from its main supplier of personnel for sex escorts – model agencies. About 20% of Ukrainians working in them regularly go abroad to escort, and one in seven is also engaged in prostitution. In these cases, the fee – up to $500 for a four-day trip – increased eightfold. To order a Ukrainian woman through an online escort agency services, the manager should send a copy of the first page of the passport and pay for a round-trip ticket. Is also required that the customer pay a minimum of 48 hours in advance of the operation and makes an advance payment of 40%.
“We are writing to foreign colleagues with a request to block access to escort sites in [the] Ukraine. In response to only get an apology, saying that on our side everything is legal, we hope [for] further cooperation,” said Alexander Kling, head of the department for combating crimes against morality at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.