So-called loverboys – young men who pimp underage girls – are increasingly turning to intimidation to see quicker results for their efforts according to a youth care report.

Loverboys single out insecure underage girls in schools, coffee shops and care homes, wooing them as boyfriends. They promise their victims love, status, drugs, clothes and excitement. Eventually they force them to work as prostitutes, isolating them from friends and family.

Recruitment is increasingly taking place via the internet and the loverboys are often members of international organised gangs. These are the conclusions from a report released by three youth care facilities in the south of the province of Limburg on Monday.

The authors find that many loverboys move to Limburg from the main conurbation in the west of the country because the girls in Limburg are more ‘naive’. Their victims are put to work as prostitutes in major foreign cities such as Antwerp, Brussels and Cologne. The average age of the victims has gone up from 15 and 16 years old to around 18. The loverboys make an estimated 65 victims a year in southern Limburg.

A large number of experts from the police, the Public Prosecutor's Office, youth care authorities, probation and after-care services and regional health authorities were interviewed for the report.

(gsh/nc)

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