Sex tourism in Ukraine is visiting the country for the purposes of sexual activity. It is on rise as the country attracts many foreign visitors.
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2006 The main reason for the situation stem from the combined effect of various factors. Currently, in Ukraine, the effect is constituted by a high level of the population poverty and its feminization, limited options for social mobility and very active system of

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

.Ради тела. Украина стала страной секс-туризма
Корреспондент.net, 2016 The majority of the Ukrainian sex industry exists underground and prospers due to poor law enforcement and widespread corruption.Natalia Antonov
Welcome to Kiev: city of beautiful women and a prospering sex industry
The Guardian, 2012 Despite making the criminal penalties for human trafficking and coerced prostitution tougher, the laws criminalizing organized prostitution have had little effect. Sex tourism within Ukrainian borders has grown considerably, raising concern in Ukrainian society and attracting condemnation from feminist activists such as FEMEN.

General background

The Ukrainian magazine, Korrespondent, had reported that after the government launched the visa-free policy with

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

, the number of western visitors traveling to Ukraine went up and continued to rise. In 2004, the total number of tourists was around 8 million, in 2006 it was 16 million, and in 2008 it had gone up to 20 million. Each foreigner spends about

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

106 ( ₴3,388) per day in Ukraine. For many people who travel to the Ukraine for sex, the reputation of the country became a rival to that of

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. According to Ukrainian mass media, the country became a center for motley hordes of sexual adventurers because the price of a visit to Ukraine does not exceed

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1,500 (₴40,456).Интим за 1500 долларов: Украина стала новой Меккой секс-туризма
TSN After the Euromaidan protests of late 2013 to early 2014, salaries plummeted, while inflation skyrocketed. As a result, an hourly rate for sex with local women typically ranges from $10 (₴270) to $75 (₴2,023), and is much lower than in other European countries. It was noted that after the political turmoil of 2014 and the war in Eastern Ukraine, the Western guests started to perceive the country as an "unstable black hole." Nevertheless, Ukraine became a very popular destination for Turkey's middle-class visitors, who have a special predilection for Slavic women. The trips to Ukraine for sex tourism created a stereotype in Turkish culture promoted by movies and books. American former

pickup artist Pickup artists (PUA), self-identified as dating coaches, the seduction community or the pickup community, is a movement of men (or women) whose goal is seduction and sexual success. The community exists through Internet newsletters and blogs, ma ...

Roosh V Daryush Valizadeh (born June 14, 1979), also known as Roosh Valizadeh, Roosh V and Roosh Vorek, is an alt-right American blogger and former pickup artist. Valizadeh writes on his personal blog and also owns the ''Return of Kings'' website, Roos ...

published a travel guide describing his experience of dating Ukrainian women. After public release, the manual attracted a lot of coverage in Ukrainian media and outrage from feminist organizations. An aspect of sex tourism in Ukraine is related to the business of marriage. Marriage agencies run scams throughout the country, emptying tourists' wallets as they go. With regards to the situation, the

United States embassy The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...

published a list of typical local fraud techniques for Americans who visit Ukraine to meet their prospective spouses.

Sexual exploitation of children

Ukraine along with Moldova and Portugal reportedly became a European center of child sex tourism. An involvement of adolescent boys into prostitution has risen a number of special concerns. It was noted that the Ukrainian legislation system has no such term as "sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism". In addition to this, low living standards, neglected white-skinned children, ubiquitous corruption and social

consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...

make Ukraine a fast-growing market for child sex services. The problem is aggravated by many other reasons, such as geographical situation in the heart of the

European continent Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...

, large economic gaps between the home countries of sex tourists and locals, absence of visas for many tourists, low prices for alcohol, reputation of a corrupted society and high chance to avoid any kind of criminal prosecution.Country Specific Report. Ukraine
Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism, 2015 According to the collected statistics, 26% of Ukrainian families with one child and 39% families with two children (4.4 and 6.6 million correspondingly) are struggling to survive whilst living below the poverty line. Poverty leaves no other option to many people except providing sex services for rich and wealthy foreign guests. A 2008 research of the Ukrainian sex workers' lifestyle revealed that 39% of them do not use condoms regularly and that 22% are drug users. Most part of Ukrainian sex workers are prostituting in tourist resorts of the Black Sea during the summer season, around 30 — 40% of them are between 11 and 18 years old. A strong link connecting the prostitution of Ukrainian children and child sex tourism can be seen within the country.

Media coverage

Ukrainian media regularly covers the topics of human trafficking, prostitution, and sex tourism in Ukraine. Especially, a great amount of media attention was brought to these issues in regard to final rounds of

European Football Championship 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

. For example, in the Polish press, all football fans traveling to Ukraine were depicted as sex tourists and all Ukrainian women as potential sexual targets. Also, the Ukrainian people were derogatorily labeled by the Polish media as poor, corrupt, criminal,

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

-positive and undemocratic.M. Schuster, A. Sülzle, A. Zimowsk
Discourse on prostitution and human trafficking in the context of UEFA EURO 2012
Academic study of discourse and campaigns in the run-up to the 2012 European Football Championship finals as the basis for advising decision-makers As a result, in 2012 there was an outbreak of hysteria over "sex tourism" among Ukrainian soccer fans. At the peak of the obsession, roving gangs of local vigilantes even attacked foreigners who ordered prostitutes, and posted the videos of beatings online.V. Maheshwar
What scared Ukraine’s ‘sex tourists’ away
POLITICO, 2016

References

{{Europe in topic, Prostitution in Prostitution in Ukraine Sex tourism Child prostitution

General background

Sexual exploitation of children

Media coverage

See also

References