Although adult prostitution is legal in Chile, bordellos are not.[1] Several hundred women were registered as prostitutes with the National Health Service.[1] Police often detained prostitutes (usually as a result of complaints by neighborhood residents) on charges of "offenses against morality," which could lead to a 50,000 pesos fine or five days in prison.[1] Procurement or pandering is illegal and punishable under law.[1] Inducing a minor (below age 18) to have sex in exchange for money or other favors is illegal.[1] Punishment ranges from three to 20 years in prison and a 520,000 pesos fine depending on the age of the minor.[1] A police sexual crimes brigade was specifically charged with investigating and prosecuting pedophilia and child pornography cases.[1]
Most human trafficking victims are women and minors trafficked internally for sexual exploitation. Chilean women and girls respond to false job offers and subsequently are subjected to forced prostitution. [2] Victims are also trafficked from the country to Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, the United States, Europe and Asia.[3] Foreign women from Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Paraguay, in addition to Asian countries such as China, are lured to Chile with fraudulent job offers and subsequently coerced into prostitution.[2]
Child prostitution is common in the country . In 2003, the Government of Chile estimated that there were approximately 3,700 children involved in some form of commercial sexual exploitation; in 1999 UNICEF put the number of child prostitutes much higher, estimating that there were approximately 10,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18 involved in prostitution.[4]
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