A very interesting documentary was shown on the BBC on 30th January about American nationals arrested in Cambodia for sexual crimes against children. The documentary followed the work of ICE, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement based in Washington, which sends agents overseas to investigate the commercial sexual exploitation of children, more commonly described as child sex tourism.

The programme followed suspected American child sex offenders, wealthy tourists looking for vulnerable children to exploit and abuse. APLE (Action Pour Les Enfants), one of ECPAT UK’s partners working in Cambodia, was also featured in the programme and described the abuse faced by children they work with and how APLE assist the police in their investigations.

The USA introduced the ‘Protect Act’ in 2003 which permits agents to investigate and arrest US citizens overseas; local informal agreements facilitate more effective cooperation between the US and Cambodian police. Crucially, the political will exists in the US to put these resources into countries like Cambodia where the crimes take place. This enables the US government to collect evidence and build stronger legal cases, meaning perpetrators receive the serious sentences merited by their unacceptable crimes.

ICE have extradited 85 individuals accused of sexually exploiting children worldwide. Sadly, the UK authorities simply do not take this proactive approach to apprehend British child sex offenders abroad. The UK has a moral duty to protect children around the world from abuse by British offenders.

ECPAT UK is calling on the government to introduce a cross-government strategy to deal effectively with sex offenders who abuse children overseas. This strategy should bring together the work of all the different government agencies involved with these cases to prevent offences from taking place and to prosecute those individuals who abuse and exploit children. The UK should also be able to send law enforcement overseas to protect children from British sex offenders.
 
As an immediate response ECPAT UK wants to see the UK government close the 3-day loophole which currently allows known sex offenders to travel abroad for up to 3 days without notifying the authorities of their intent to go overseas. We are asking our supporters to write to their MP to ask them to close this 3-day loophole immediately.

Watch the documentary now.