It may be the spiritual capital of the grand European project but, according to a damning new report, Brussels has also become the European centre for the trade in child prostitutes, who are being smuggled into Belgium to feed a growing demand.
Asylum claims from unaccompanied minors have almost trebled in six years, says the report from the International Organisation for Migration IOM , but it has also emerged that Belgium has become a 'favoured destination' for modern-day sex slaves - both boys and girls. They come from Belgium's former African colonies and eastern Europe and are ruthlessly exploited by gangs which have often bought the girls from the victims' families and friends and forced them into a life of bondage.
Prized for their youth, they are sought by men who want unprotected sex and believe the girls' inexperience means they are less likely to have Aids and other diseases.
In the country that suffered the trauma of the case of Marc Dutroux - an electrician accused of kidnapping and raping four girls in the mids who is still to be tried - child sex is a subject that many in Belgium would prefer to sweep under the carpet.
Brothels run by ageing madames and prostitutes posing in windows have long been a feature of everyday urban life in Belgium, but child prostitution is a new, darker side to the country.
