Balkan Insight found similar numbers provided by the National Statistical
Institute. It reported that in 2005, 501 underage persons went through
government facilities known as 'children's pedagogical rooms' for prostitution
and homosexuality, while in 2006, that number fell to 400, yielding a 20 per
cent decrease.
"The problem with these statistics is that they present only registered cases
of children whom the police worked with, but the actual numbers are probably
higher," Lydia Zagorova of the Neglected Children Society, one of the main
groups working in this area in Bulgaria and a member of ECPAT International,
told Balkan Insight.
Neither her organisation, nor the Bulgarian office of the UN Children's Fund,
UNICEF, were able to provide any official statistics on child prostitution.
The decrease in child prostitution was confirmed by the 2006 US Department of
State Report on Human Rights Practises in Bulgaria, which stated that "the
Ministry of Interior identified 255 children as 'at risk' of being forced into
prostitution between January and October, compared to 398 in 2005."
While child prostitution is on the decrease, a hurdle in the fight against it
seems to be a lack of a legal framework. The Bulgarian judiciary does not offer
a definition of child prostitution and does not define prostitution in general
as a crime, Petkov pointed out.
Mentioning the strict laws against kidnapping for prostitution purposes that
are currently in place, Petkov added "Bulgaria is not considered a destination
for so-called 'child sex tourism'."
Zagorova pointed out that the issue currently receives little government
attention or public debate. She hoped that future cooperation between
government and non-government agencies will shed more light and bring measures
for addressing the problem.
