BBC Trending: Medellín's "Passport Bros"
🎙️ Reporting for the BBC on Medellín, misogyny, and sexual abuse of minors
My full audio report from Parque Lleras, Medellín, at 2am on a Friday night:
You can hear the whole podcast here, including a part of the above audio and my interview (dubbed into English) with sexual exploitation campaigner Jazmín Santa, here:
Dating in Medellín, Colombia is being promoted to foreign men on YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms. Lots of the videos – in English and Spanish - contain misogynistic language and suggest that the local women are both accessible and easy.
These videos are part of a wider trend of “passport bros” many of whom are American men, seeking life abroad in places marketed by content creators as being good for meeting women. In theory, adult men going to meet adult women isn't a problem, but Medellin has a huge problem with sexual exploitation.
It’s often nicknamed by the press as ‘the world’s biggest brothel’. Since the pandemic the city has introduced curfews for underage girls in some neighbourhoods while NGOs there are working against the issue.
BBC Trending investigates the impact of passport bros in Colombia’s second biggest city.
Presenter: Phoebe Hopson
Producer: Jonathan Griffin
Editor: Flora Carmichael
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5y9r