By Florence Hainaut
Abstract: In French-speaking Belgium, no one knows exactly how many underage girls are being sexually exploited. Front-line workers are not sufficiently trained to detect dangerous situations, and the police lacks the technological and human resources to be proactive in this area. And finally, victims are reluctant to consider themselves as such, and therefore to collaborate with the authorities. Most victims have a background in youth work. They’re teenagers on the margins, already abused by life and easier to manipulate. Many have already been sexually abused as children. These are the fragile young girls that pimps will target. Those working in the field recognize that they have a sixth sense for detecting weaknesses. And a talent for manipulation. Sexually trafficking minors has become less dangerous than the drug or arms trade. They are not a police priority. Nor a political one
“In nearly half of the cases, the victim was under 15 years old. Twelve victims were 13 years old, and two were only 12. The majority were girls.” This sentence is taken from the latest annual report by Child Focus, which, in addition to dealing with missing children, also fights against their sexual exploitation. Each year, the foundation tries to raise awareness about this reality and to mobilise political, police, and judicial authorities. So far, in vain. How is it possible that in a country which once marched en masse in support of the victims of pedocriminals, chanting “Never again”, very young girls—even little girls—can be sexually exploited without causing an outcry? This is the story of a chain of dysfunctions that abandons children.
We don’t know how many of them there are, these sexually exploited minors. In 2024, Child Focus opened ninety-four new cases. That’s almost a 30% increase compared to the previous year, which had already broken the record set the year before. Ninety-four cases, that means as many sexually exploited children. A number too high to be anecdotal, but clearly not massive enough to become a major concern. And yet, it only represents the tip of the iceberg. Most cases of sexual exploitation of minors appear in no report, neither police nor academic. Young girls who slip under the radar for several reasons.
“On the French-speaking side,” explains Tessa Lantonnois, training manager at Child Focus, “we’ve identified three types of minor victims. On the one hand, young girls who have been involved in youth welfare services, then young girls from more affluent backgrounds, mostly from the south of the capital and from Walloon Brabant. Finally, victims of international trafficking.” These young girls mainly come from Bulgaria and Romania. Lured to Belgium by the promise of a better future with an older man they’re in love with, they end up being sexually exploited. Each of these profiles, for different reasons, makes the work of the police and associations very complicated.
Giving in is not consenting While some of these young girls are exploited under coercion, many are emotionally manipulated to the point of being persuaded to prostitute themselves of their own free will. Eric Garbar is head of the central ‘Human Trafficking and Smuggling’ department of the General Directorate of the Judicial Police. He knows the scenarioall too well. A ‘love story’ between a very young, vulnerable girl and a young adult. Then a shared future is jeopardised for financial reasons. ‘He’s lost his job or he’s in debt from gambling or whatever reason means he no longer has any money, he can no longer protect her, he can no longer provide for her and buy her the gifts he used to.’ And this solution, perhaps, if she agrees to help him… ‘The victim, even if she doesn’t agree, deep down inside, gives in. It’s a vicious cycle that starts and never stops.’ This is an almost automatic pattern in cases of exploitation involving foreign minors. But Belgian victims mostly undergo the same brainwashing.
Sandrine François is a criminologist at Esperanto. The association—whose address is confidential—is the only centre in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation that hosts minor victims of human trafficking. She too knows this emotional blackmail inside out: “Sometimes, the girls tell me that they themselves suggested prostituting themselves in order to get by. And so they don’t consider themselves victims at all. That’s why they can’t manage to file a complaint. They feel like they’re in control, like they chose this path, but they don’t realise the extent of the control behind it or what actually led them to prostitution.”
Pimps do not, in fact, target just anyone. “And it’s not a question of social class,” warns Eric Garbar. “These are slightly fragile young girls, either from underprivileged backgrounds, or with family or school problems, difficulties forming social bonds, sometimes psychological issues and addictions to drugs, alcohol, etc.” Flaws into which pimps insert themselves. “They will very quickly sense what we call the missing part,” explains Tessa Lantonnois from Child Focus, “and they’ll slip into that crack to fill in that little missing piece. If the girl lacks affection, they will give her lots of affection. If she needs recognition or to feel like she belongs to a group—whatever the need is—they will play on that to gain her trust, her love, and to manipulate her. And ultimately to exploit her.” And this chilling observation from Sandrine François: “Of all the victims I’ve met, maybe only one hadn’t experienced sexual abuse before falling into this system. They already have a particular relationship with their body—they’re almost detached from it.”
Youth welfare: a breeding ground for pimps
While most of this manipulation now takes place through social media—and is therefore almost undetectable by adults—pimps can still be found near youth welfare institutions that house teenagers. Whether through Instagram, Snapchat, or by approaching them directly near where they live, the goal is the same: to take control by distancing them from adult supervision. In its latest annual report, Child Focus indicates that, in its cases of sexual exploitation, 71% involve girls residing in an institution. Emilie Coomans is in charge of political advocacy for the foundation: “Most of the sexual exploitation cases we open are in the context of runaways, after being contacted by the institution where the victim resides.” In 94% of the cases, a link between the runaway and sexual exploitation was even established. Tessa Lantonnois: “When you’re on the run, you need a roof over your head and something to eat, and they often have no choice but to obey the people who provide them with shelter and food. For some girls, it can also be a way to get access to drugs or alcohol.”
As for the profile of the perpetrators, the answer is the same everywhere: young men, sometimes barely of age. “A hyper-connected generation, completely at ease with using social media, smartphones, etc.,” explains Eric Garbar. “Digital technology has truly become a major factor leading to exploitation. It’s a tool for finding victims, detecting their vulnerabilities, but also for organising trafficking.” Renting Airbnbs where the victim will be exploited, Telegram groups to put them up for sale. But digital tools are also an extremely powerful means of blackmail and control: “In the majority of cases, there are videos, photos that are taken and used as leverage: ‘If you don’t do what I say, it’ll be sent to your family, to your friends, it’ll be posted on social media—everyone will recognise you.’”
Today, overall, the Belgian police do not have the budgets that would allow them to be effective in the digital sphere. Yet it’s a crucial issue, according to Eric Garbar: “There is an urgent need to develop the police’s capacity to conduct proactive investigations in the digital world. That means equipment, software, and training. It would be good if all specialised investigators could follow training to also become specialised in online research. These are truly two complementary aspects of the profile of an investigator working in the fight against human trafficking. And we are very far from that.”
These pimps, who take advantage of the police’s lack of resources, are not always very experienced. While some come from criminal organisations, others are simply opportunists. “Overall,” explains Tessa Lantonnois from Child Focus, “we’re seeing more networks of teenage pimps than actual organised rings. It’s rarely very structured or clearly defined, even if in some cases it’s linked to urban gangs.” Part of the sexual exploitation of underage girls represents a new, lucrative and low-risk market. ’It’s much less risky than drug or arms trafficking. So it’s a very lucrative business, without taking too many risks. These girls aren’t put on display at the Gare du Nord; they’re hidden in apartments rented on Airbnb.‘ Eric Garbar confirms this: ’When you work in narcotics, you do a raid, you find three kilos of cocaine, and it’s bingo. The perpetrator can say what they want, it’s over for them. When you work in my field, you arrive at an apartment and there are three young women who are prostitutes, one of whom is a minor. None of the victims want to cooperate, none of the victims want to be recognised as victims. It’s much more complicated.”
Young girls who are victims of sexual exploitation are, in fact, far from being the “ideal” victims in the eyes of the authorities. Runaways, often with a background of petty crime (drug dealing, theft), they are frequently seen first and foremost as delinquents. And treated as such. Emilie Coomans, in charge of political advocacy at Child Focus: “It’s a very specific group—sometimes you almost have to make them understand that they are victims, and that’s very difficult.” Among the reasons that prevent them from recognising the hold and extreme violence they’re actually subjected to is the transactional nature of the exploitation: “They were paid to sell their bodies, and many internalise the idea that by accepting this situation, they can’t really consider themselves victims. This form of guilt sometimes prevents a full acknowledgement of what they’ve been through.” Add to that a certain mistrust of the authorities, particularly strong among victims who rely on youth welfare services. They are part of a system that has often tossed them around, and they no longer have any trust in institutions—or in adults.
The myth of the “perfect victim”
Finally, the lack of training among frontline workers in understanding what a victim of sexual exploitation is—and how she reacts—completes the picture of these teenagers being seen by the authorities as “bad victims.” “These are young girls who speak about what they went through with extreme detachment and coldness,” explains Emilie Coomans. “A police officer who isn’t trained in the phenomenon of dissociation, in how traumatic memory works, risks completely misunderstanding what’s really happening.” A situation that criminologist Sandrine François has already encountered: “I’m thinking in particular of a young girl I’m working with at the moment. I read her first interview, her first complaint, and it went completely off the rails. They started accusing her of lying. Why would she trust the police again now?” It is therefore essential to train social workers, but also police officers and magistrates. And such a training does exist. Child Focus developed it and offers it free of charge to professionals. The foundation, notably through its political advocacy officer, has been campaigning for years for mandatory training of all frontline workers on this issue: “Not just basic training, but ongoing training as well, because these are phenomena that evolve constantly. And yet, this training remains insufficient and is not always mandatory. Even so, I think that in itself sends a strong message. This is a phenomenon that is continuously growing, that we encounter all the time, that is serious, that is socially unacceptable.”
A matter of priorities, urgency, and budgets, according to Eric Garbar: “I don’t think there’s any bad intent behind it. But it’s clear that the police and judicial institutions are extremely cumbersome, and they’ve been underfunded for decades. We also have to keep in mind that the figures used to allocate current staffing levels are based on standards established years ago.” Outdated police—and therefore budgetary—priorities that haven’t evolved as quickly as society and crime. “It’s the Minister of the Interior who can decide to change that. But every government over the past 20 years has cut the police budget.” And the same goes for the justice system, which comes second in line and also struggles to grasp the scope of the problem. Before becoming the General Delegate for Children’s Rights in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Solayman Laqdim worked for about twenty years in youth protection. He saw the shortcomings of the justice system every day: “It’s been bled dry. We lack prosecutors, judges, administrative staff, legal advisors, criminologists. In short, we’re now paying the price for the gradual disinvestment that’s been made in the justice system.”
Coming out of trauma
When we say “we”, we refer most of all to these young girls. How many minors are sexually exploited? It’s impossible to say. In 2024, Eric Garbar’s unit managed to identify 112 suspected cases of child prostitution—some of which likely overlap with the 94 cases reported by Child Focus for the same year—but they have no visibility on what police or judicial follow-up was given to those cases.
In its report on the subject, ECPAT—a network of associations fighting against the sexual exploitation of children—allows itself a projection, based on a French study concerning minors monitored by child welfare services who acknowledged being in a situation of confirmed sexual exploitation. “If we extrapolated the French figures to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, we would be looking at an estimated 1,680 potential cases of sexual exploitation among young people under the care of youth welfare services alone.” A projection that doesn’t take into account other situations: girls outside the welfare system and foreign victims. But a theoretical figure that points to a systemic problem—and one massive enough to finally become a major concern.
The lack of political will to make the sexual exploitation of minors a priority seems difficult to explain. But it becomes very tangible in the lack of financial and human resources allocated to the sectors directly concerned, as well as in the lack of training on the subject. And in the lack of available data, which prevents any clear view of the scale of the situation. The ECPAT report states it in black and white: “The sexual exploitation of minors is an under-documented topic, both in the academic field and in the public sector. In Europe, there is currently no reliable source that compiles reports by type of child sexual exploitation. (…) In the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the situation is even less documented than at the European level.”
Why so little funding and so little consideration for these victims? Perhaps because they are not always seen for what they are: children. Something that never stops shocking Emilie Coomans: “I’m going to say it bluntly, but it’s a fact: they are often seen as ‘insolent, difficult, runaway girls,’ so it seems normal that they would engage in this kind of risky behaviour. Sometimes you just want to shake people and say: ‘They’re kids!’ One must never forget that a child, legally, does not have the capacity to consent to sexual relations in exchange for payment.” The law is in fact clear: while teenagers can give their consent to sexual relations at 16, under no circumstances can they willingly engage in prostitution. Under the age of 18, it is considered sexual exploitation.
In a country supposedly traumatised by cases of pedocriminality, how is it possible that children—most of them girls, sometimes as young as 12 or 13—can be prostituted in rental apartments, their services offered for sale on Telegram groups? For the General Delegate for Children’s Rights, it may be the shockwave from the Dutroux case that has led to this blindness: “I think there’s a kind of collective trauma in Belgium that makes us not particularly willing to address certain issues—that makes public opinion not particularly willing to hear about them. It’s a denial of reality.” Because even if poorly documented and under-investigated, this reality exists. And the time has come to move beyond collective trauma and invest in saving these children.
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