Outreach efforts and police raids to find children trapped in the sex trade stopped in April in some parts of Amhara as authorities focused on enforcing a COVID-19 state of emergency. Several sex workers - including underage girls - said they felt abandoned by their community and neglected by officials. Several sex workers said reporting abuse or violence was a waste of time as authorities tended to trust the buyers. Some sex workers said the job was a short-term solution in order to make enough money to pay smugglers to send them abroad. Despite one failed migration attempt - Tsion recalled seeing corpses en route to Libya - the teenager considered the sex trade as the only way to realise her dream of making it abroad.

Source: Ethiopian News November 09, 2020 01:43 UTC