Iraqi refugees turn to sex trade in Syria

[Barrett808]

Source: Reuters

Iraqi refugees turn to sex trade in Syria
31 Dec 2007 00:04:13 GMT
By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

DAMASCUS, Dec 31 (Reuters) - A score of young Iraqi women in tight, shimmering gowns shuffle across the nightclub dance floor under the hungry eyes of Gulf Arabs at nearby tables.

The band blasts out Iraqi songs into the early hours as the watching youths join the dancing or summon girls to sit with them -- there is little pretence about what gets transacted at this neon-lit nightspot half an hour's drive north of Damascus.

The dancers, some in their early teens, do not want to talk, but one said she had no other way to support her family. "My father was killed in Baghdad and our money is finished," muttered the dark-haired girl in a black and silver dress.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR calls it "survival sex", a desperate way to cope for Iraqi refugees whose savings have run out since they escaped the violence at home.

The idea repels many of the 1.5 million Iraqis in Syria, but the struggle to make ends meet has forced some to share tiny apartments with other families in the slums of Damascus, put their children out to work or marry off teenaged daughters.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29661659.htm

[humbled_opinion]

1. What an absolute mess we made of that country...

[Bobbieo]

2. Does anyone ever ask - "How many years

before this will happen here in America?"

[humbled_opinion]

4. Its already happening our youth is turning to prostitution in record

numbers young girls 11, 12 year olds on the streets in LA and NY selling their bodies for food and drugs. What happens when we have a national crisis, this will multiply 1000 fold... :nuke:

[Bobbieo]

5. And that national crisis is coming - Run like hell when you see the Bush and /Cheney bunch leaving

but where do we run to?????

[LaStrega]

3. "What's this life? We knew no life under Saddam and no life after him."

WTG dubya. Mission accomplished.

[subsuelo]

6. good thing our Democrats are getting us out of there