[ Life ] I had a friend from Syria before.
[ Life ] I used to meet him here.
[ Life ] He comes to my house.
[ Life ] I gave him €10 for a one-hour massage, very good.
[ Life ] You massage me, I give you €10?
[ Life ] 35.
[ Life ] I think you don't want massage only...
[ Life ] You need more.
[ Life ] Yeah, if I need more, it's ok?
[ Life ] Yeah, you will pay more. - How much?
[ Life ] 20?
[ Life ] No, I don't have 20.
[ Life ] 10 for sex, 10 for massage?
[ Life ] Ok, I can. - In your home or hotel?
[ Life ] Home. - With condom or not?
[ Life ] I have condoms.
[ Life ] Ok, to be safe.
[ VO ] This is a middle-aged man bargaining for sex with a teenage refugee from Syria.
According to UNICEF there are more than 18,000 underage refugees in Greece
and one in 5 of them is here alone. Many went through hell to get here
and that hell continues for some teenagers in the heart of Athens where
they now sell their bodies to make e nds meet. These are their stories.
SEX, DRUGS & REFUGEES
[ Marina ] Hi. Marina, nice to meet you. Where are you all from? [ Guys ] Syria.
[ Marina ] All of you? All of you from Syria?
[ Marina ] And… how old are you? [ Guys ] 17, 17, 16…
[ Marina ] 17, 17, 16… [ Guys ] 21… - 21… - 21… - 16...
[ Marina ] Ok, so: where do you live? Where do you sleep?
[ Guys ] Syntagma! - Here!
[ Marina ] Why here, why not in shelter?
[ Guys ] It's how the government is.
[ Guys ] I applied for housing a year ago.
[ Guys ] Greek… System Greek… [ Marina ] Greek system? [ Guys ] Yeah, Greek system no house.
[ Guy ] Some people help us, our friends help us.
[ Guy ] Relatives send money from Germany, all over Europe.
[ Guy ] Now he has a flat, I'll stay with him for a night.
[ Guy ] When I have money, I go to a hotel.
[ Guy ] When I don't, I sleep rough.
[ Guy ] That's how we live. What else is there to do?
[ Guy ] As adults, we look after the minors.
[ Guy ] They face a lot of temptations: drugs, stealing.
[ Guy ] They have lots of problems. It's not safe here.
[ Guy ] I left the camp for 3 days, was detained and look what happened.
[ Guy ] This was in prison. I did this to myself at the police station.
[ Guy ] As soon as I got to the camp, a fight broke out and I had to leave.
[ Guy ] This is their humanity… I've been wounded and need surgery,
but they won't let me into the hospital. I was robbed and beaten by Moroccans.
[ Guy ] The police just stood by and watched.
[ Guy ] I need surgery but they didn't let me into the hospital.
[ Guy ] I sleep here, in Syntagma. It gets cold at night which makes it worse.
[ Guy ] We don't have any warm clothes, we sleep on cardboard.
[ Guy ] Here, in Greece, where's their humanity?
[ Guy ] Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium...
[ Guy ] All Europe has humanity but not Greece, why?
[ Marina ] Can we follow some of you around for a
few days? To see how you live and how you survive?
[ Guy ] Sure, no problem. But my story differs from the rest.
[ VO ] We met these guys on Syntagma square which is as
central as it gets in Athens. It’s right across from
parliament and always crowded, more recently with
refugees. Some just hang out here with friends and then
return to their camps or shelters. But some can’t find
a shelter or they choose not to stay in one, so they
work and sleep here. It’s common to see young refugees
sitting on their own, just waiting to be picked up.
[ Guy ] I'm 17 years old.
[ Guy ] I came 6 months ago from Turkey, by sea.
[ Guy ] Here, there are lots of old people who offer money for sex.
[ Guy ] Sometimes I just sit here alone.
[ Guy ] Eventually, someone will approach,
and I'll offer it to him.
[ Marina ] Where are they normally from? And how old are they?
[ Guy ] Greece, Canada, Germany, France.
[ Guy ] They're always over 40.
[ Guy ] They come, we talk and make a deal.
[ Guy ] They might offer me a coffee in a café.
[ Guy ] Then we go to a hotel or to their house.
[ Life ] One night. I have a house.
[ Life ] You? A house?
[ Life ] Today?
[ Life ] Today, tonight... To sleep. - Does he want today?
[ Life ] We can go with a friend. I always pay.
[ Life ] Passive or active?
[ Life ] €10 no problem.
[ Life ] Really, I'm very good.
[ Life ] Nice to meet you.
[ Guy ] At first, I'd come here after fights in the camp.
[ Guy ] I had nowhere to sleep.
[ Guy ] A man approached me.
[ Guy ] He asked, 'Are you hungry?'
[ Guy ] I said, 'Yes, I'm hungry.'
[ Guy ] 'Come with me,' he said, 'We'll eat and talk.'
[ Guy ] In the end, he asked, 'Will you come back with me to sleep?
[ Guy ] I'll help you, give you money...
...feed you, help you.'
[ Guy ] I agreed.
[ Guy ] I went to his house.
[ Guy ] I wasn't used to these things.
[ Guy ] I went to take a shower...
[ Guy ] As soon as I got in, he advanced on me.
[ Guy ] He told me that, in Greece,
you get no money if you don't do it.
[ Guy ] I felt uneasy.
[ Guy ] As soon as we'd finished, I started to cry.
[ Guy ] But I had to do it, as I wanted to eat and drink.
[ Guy ] I have no place to live, nobody.
[ VO ] We spent several days on the central squares of Athens and
saw many older men talking to young boys and then leaving with
them. One night we overheard 2 older men negotiating a price
with 2 young Afghans. We decided to ask them what was going on.
[ Man ] There's a bit of everything here...
[ Man ] People from Afghanistan, Syria...
because it's central.
[ Marina ] Can I ask you where are you from?
[ Man ] British, British, Afghani.
[ Marina ] You’re from Afghanistan? How many months, years in Greece?
[ Man ] But they rather to not answer.
[ Marina ] Sorry? [ Man ] They rather to not answer you
[ Marina ] Do you speak for them? [ Man ] No, I speak for myself.
[ Marina ] No because I asked and you…
[ Man ] I’m a refugee board UN. I can speak no problem,
I working with the refugee, I work in the camp.
[ Man ] I don’t think we were talking about price…
[ Marina ] I know you are from Cyprus. [ Man ] I’m working with the refugee.
[ Man ] Any time 24 hours, 7 days a week.
[ Marina ] So you’re sitting with 2 boys discussing
price and you’re talking about UN refugee camps?
[ Man ] You’re talking b*shit. Stop. Good luck. [ Marina ] OK. Thank you.
[ Man ] You f*king bitch.
[ Marina ] These 2 guys are clearly not underage
but there are many underage people here too.
[ Man ] I want to go with you to the police officers,
any police around here I have a complaint against you.
[ Marina ] You have a complaint? Don’t touch me. [ Man ] Yes, let’s go.
[ Marina ] OK, let’s go. let’s go.
[ Man ] It’s none of your business why I am here. [ Marina ] Don’t be pointing your hand on me.
[ Man ] I am pointing at you because you are very bitch…
[ Man ] I’m working with the legal… I’m working with the lawyer.
[ Marina ] Why are you getting so anxious then? Why?
[ Marina ] I'm a journalist, and..?
[ Marina ] So what’s your name then? Well… Call the police we have a
job to do. [ Man ] Hold on call the police, I want the police here.
[ Marina ] Call them, no one is stopping you, call them, call them.
[ Marina ] Go on, give them a call…
[ Marina ] So we have a man who’s clearly very angry right now trying to
call the police on us. Oh but they’re leaving. OK. Let’s go.
[ Marina ] Sorry, can we talk to you? - No English.
[ Marina ] What do you do? What do you do? - No.
[ VO ] We didn’t have our translator with us at the time and couldn’t
take the conversation further but it was pretty clear what was going on.
Prostitution is legal here as long as sex workers are registered, over
18, legal residents of Greece and have health checks every two weeks.
But that’s not the case with these vulnerable
boys some of whom are literally suicidal.
[ Hassan ] I'm Hassan Al-Ali, Syrian, 16 years old.
[ Hassan ] I arrived on 10 October 2016.
[ Hassan ] I sleep in the streets, where else?
[ Hassan ] In parks, streets, city squares.
[ Hassan ] I applied for housing,
but still haven't been given anything.
[ Hassan ] No one's told me what's happening or where I should go,
since the day I came to Greece.
[ Hassan ] How do I live? What can I tell you?
[ Hassan ] Sometimes I make money working on Omonoia Square.
[ Hassan ] Sometimes old men approach us...
...and offer money for sex.
[ Hassan ] I've been here for a year.
[ Hassan ] I've been doing it ever since.
[ Hassan ] It's all because of hunger.
[ Hassan ] I've no money to buy food.
[ Hassan ] Should I die of starvation?
[ Hassan ] No, I'll do anything to stay alive.
[ Marina ] How much money he can make?
[ Hassan ] €15 or €20.
[ Marina ] And how often?
[ Hassan ] Once in ten days.
[ Hassan ] Sometimes not at all.
[ Hassan ] I wish it was every day.
[ Life ] Oh, what a nice boy this is...
[ Life ] How much will you give me?
[ Life ] To go with you?
[ Hassan ] I feel broken... A man who...
... is worthless.
[ Marina ] If you could talk to a guy your age, who
was planning to come here, what would you tell him?
[ Hassan ] Don't come.
[ Hassan ] It's better to stay where the war is,
than suffer humiliation here.
[ VO ] Fights regularly break out between refugees of
different nationalities due to ethnic conflicts back
home. Desperation is everywhere and they have nothing
to do and even less to lose. A refugee was stabbed
that night. That’s why the police came and at the
same time they searched people for drugs. As we tried
to find out what was happening, we heard there was
another fight involving the guy with the broken arm.
[ VO ] Our guys started running so we followed.
[ VO ] Apparently the man we’d met earlier spotted the group that
had broken his arm and asked his friends to help him take revenge.
[ Life ] They're gone.
[ Life ] Which way? - That way.
[ Life ] When? - Just now...
[ Life ] I was following them as they walked.
[ Life ] Are you alright? - Yes, I fell on my arm.
[ Life ] Why did you go alone?
[ Life ] How many were there? - Four.
[ Life ] Which way? - That way.
[ Life ] Moroccans? - Yes, they were drunk.
[ Life ] Shall we follow? - We won't find them.
[ Life ] Do you have their photo? - No.
[ VO ] Hassan was worried about his friend that night. He disappeared
when the police arrived and no one knew if he was detained,
working or in hiding. His phone is often dead as he has nowhere
to charge it so all we could do was hope to see him tomorrow.
[ VO ] The following day we heard that he had been
arrested because he didn’t have any documents on him.
[ Guy ] They held us at the police station for four hours,
then they let us go.
[ Guy ] Hashish is sold all around the square.
[ Guy ] They treat us as dealers.
[ Marina ] The paper he signs what language is it in?
[ Guy ] Greek.
[ Marina ] In Greek? And you don't’ understand Greek of course. You don’t understand.
[ Guy ] We don't read it. They fill in the documents themselves.
[ Guy ] I don't buy it myself, but my friends do. I may smoke with them.
[ Marina ] And what did you do after?
[ Guy ] We went to the square and 2 or 3 pimps turned up,
but we refused to go with them.
[ VO ] The guys told us they’d developed a rash of some kind and
desperate need a treatment which is why they were heading to a pharmacy.
[ Guy ] We picked up an infection from
one of our friends or caught it in the parks.
[ Guy ] My friend had a very bad itch.
[ Guy ] I had one, too.
[ Guy ] We saw a doctor who gave us a prescription.
[ Life ] Take your T-shirt off.
[ Life ] Don't put too much on.
[ Life ] And on your stomach? - Yes.
[ Life ] Just a bit, enough.
[ Life ] Enough to make it heal. - And the shoulder.
[ Guy ] Yesterday I was offered a job selling hashish
with one guy, but I turned it down.
[ Guy ] I don't know... I'll ask Iliyas if I should do it.
[ Guy ] If he says yes, I'll do it.
[ Guy ] He knows what's best for us.
[ Guy ] If we get arrested and go to jail, it's alright.
[ Guy ] We already feel as though we're in jail in Greece anyway.
[ VO ] This square is called Omonoia and it’s a 15min walk
from parliament where we met the guys. They told us that it’s
one of the top 3 most popular places to buy sex and drugs
in Athens. The vibe here changes at night and becomes very
seedy. As you walk by you are bound to see young boys flirting
with passers by offering drugs or themselves. One of our
refugees wanted to tell us more about the neighbourhood but
asked us to conceal his identity because he’s a regular here.
[ Guy ] Certain things go on in Omonoia Square.
[ Guy ] Underage kids come here because they have no money.
[ Guy ] They wait here because it's well known for prostitution,
including more unconventional forms.
[ Guy ] There are certain places here where this happens.
[ Guy ] There are also people here who do this kind of work.
[ Guy ] There are pimps who arrange it.
[ Guy ] There are also cafés where people can go to do it.
[ Guy ] Everyone knows the phone numbers of underage kids, used for this purpose.
[ Guy ] It's well known they need money.
[ Guy ] For example, if a tourist from a European country approaches them,
he asks for their numbers.
[ Other Guy ] I have one doctor with me to go for coffee.
[ Other Guy ] Today comes here Dr Fazli?
[ Other Guy ] He tells me, 'Where are you?'
[ Other Guy ] Work after, come.
[ Other Guy ] After, speak with me.
[ Other Guy ] Ok, for doctor.
[ Other Guy ] I have a doctor friend here.
[ Other Guy ] He's a very close friend.
[ Other Guy ] He gave me clothes and money.
[ Other Guy ] He told me to come to his place
the day after tomorrow.
[ Hassan ] There was a man from France,
he went back today,
who would give me €20 every three days.
[ Hassan ] But he went back today.
[ VO ] Elsewhere in town that night, right under the Acropolis, these
two teenagers are trying to work out how they’re going to eat tonight.
[ Life ] What are we going to do about food?
[ Life ] I'm hungry, starving.
[ Life ] Let's watch people, see what they're doing.
[ Life ] Let's sell a mobile, steal something.
[ Life ] Let's go home.
[ Yasin ] My name is Yasin, I'm from Afghanistan.
[ Yasin ] I've been in Greece for two months.
[ Yasin ] I contacted the migration centre, which promised to provide housing.
[ Yasin ] But whenever I contact them, they delay my appointment.
[ Yasin ] I have no accommodation, so I sleep rough in parks.
[ Yasin ] I have no place of my own.
[ VO ] These two were the youngest refugees we’d met working the
streets. They asked us to conceal their identities as they were ashamed
and scared to talk openly about what they do.
[ Marina ] So you have an interview on the 26th of March
of 2018… and it was issued on the 26th of September.
[ Marina ] Before you registered you were here for 4 months.
[ Marina ] What were you doing for 4 months? How did you live?
[ Guy ] I used to live in streets and parks.
[ Marina ] How did you make money?
[ Guy ] We make money by old men, gays or something
like that. They give money 20 euro, 10 euro.
[ Marina ] How did you find out about this?
[ Guy ] One day I was sitting in Viktoria park on a bench and there
was one old man who was whistling at me I was scared if he was doing
something and then I ran away from there and then asked someone why he
was doing like that and they said that he’s a gay and he wants that.
[ Guy ] They call us and they give a number, then they get us to a hotel
or to their home and then they give food and drink, and then they…
[ Marina ] But the first time you did it… how did you feel?
[ Guy ] It was little embarrassing.
[ Marina ] I assume also you’re not gay. Or are you gay? [ Guy ] No.
[ Marina ] You are not?
[ Guy ] We have to do this for money.
[ VO ] The boys told us that from 8am until 6 pm they go to a local organisation
where they’re given free lessons and other activities. They love being there,
but in the evenings they’re on their own. It’s too early for work now: most
clients don’t come out before 8pm. Until then, they simply roam the streets.
[ Life ] We're desperate. What can we do?
[ Life ] There's no way out.
[ Life ] What should I do, kill myself?
[ Life ] I must do something, I don't even have €10.
[ Life ] There are prostitutes here.
[ Life ] It's embarrassing to talk about,
but we are being offered €10 or €20.
[ Life ] That's not even enough for bread.
[ Life ] Let's steal phones, I know someone who pays €50 per phone.
[ Life ] What about the police? - Where are you going? Let's steal phones.
[ Marina ] Do you work every evening?
[ Guy ] In a week 3 or 4 time when we don’t have money for food.
[ Marina ] How many times have you done it so far?
[ Guy ] I don't know.
[ Life ] Aren't you scared when you work?
[ Life ] What? - Are you scared or not?
[ Life ] Yes, but where will I get money if I don't work?
[ VO ] We followed the boys to see where they would
sleep that night. We soon realised that we had been to
this park before, but in the daytime. Our local contact
took us here because it's a known hotspot for drug
dealers, users, sex workers and the homeless. We
couldn’t believe that this is how these two kids sleep
at night and that they still have to wait another 6
months for their interview with the asylum service.
[ Leo Dobbs, Senior Communications Officer, UNHCR ] It’s the frustration of the time it
takes for people to learn what’s going to happen to them. I mean they need help, they
shouldn’t be wandering around with nowhere to stay unsupervised. The issue of survival
sex... it’s a desperation. There’s not enough room for people on waiting lists...
[ Guy ] What do you think about going back to Turkey?
[ Guy ] I'm going back. I've been here for 7 months,
and I don't want to end up like
those who beg in the street at night.
[ Hassan ] I don't advise you to beg at night. Will you forget it?
[ Guy ] I swear I'll never forget what begging feels like.
[ Guy ] If I hadn't been brought up well in Syria, then I wouldn't put up with this.
[ Guy ] Of course I'll leave:
[ Guy ] I've had no response to my application.
[ Guy ] If my life in Europe has started so horribly, how will it end?
[ Guy ] In 9 days, I'll return to Turkey.
[ Guy ] My friend told me it's very easy to go back.
[ Guy ] Even if the police arrest me at the border,
they'll take me back to Turkey themselves.
[ Guy ] We'll dirty our clothes, and go to a café on the border.
[ Guy ] The owner will call the police, who will take us away.
[ Guy ] After a day in a Greek prison, they'll deport us to Turkey.
[ Guy ] After a day in prison there, we'll be free to go.
[ Guy ] Where will you go in Turkey? [ Hassan ] Bodrum.
[ Guy ] Not Izmir?
[ Hassan ] Where would I live? [ Guy ] In a shared house with friends.
[ Hassan ] Where would I work?
[ Guy ] We'll find somewhere.
[ Guy ] Then, we'll learn the language.
[ Guy ] I want to go to America. [ Hassan ] Why?
[ Guy ] Why stay here? I'm tired of it.
[ Hassan ] You came here, now you want to go to America?
[ Guy ] Right now we don’t see a future because we don’t have a place
or we don’t go to schools. So we don’t think we have a future.
[ Yasin ] It's cold tonight. Where will I sleep?
[ Yasin ] I want a place to live in. I have nothing.
[ Yasin ] They should provide us with a shelter urgently.
[ Yasin ] Being homeless will ruin our futures.
[ Yasin ] We'll end up as junkies.
[ Hassan ] I don't see a future for myself.
[ Hassan ] I won't stay in this world, honestly.
[ Hassan ] I won't last long. I might hang myself.
[ Hassan ] I give myself no longer than a year.
[ Hassan ] Actually I'd like to die now, before tomorrow comes.
[ Hassan ] That was my aim, what I wanted to do.
[ Hassan ] What do I have to live for? What's the point?