Sex work is big business in the Philippines, but with contraception often not used in the country and abortion illegal, there can be long term consequences.
Men from overseas – including Australia and New Zealand – are estimated to have fathered tens of thousands of children to sex workers. Most of the children have never been acknowledged and have been raised in poverty.
Now, thanks to a trailblazing Australian-led project, the children’s DNA is being used to identify their sex-tourist fathers, track them down, and demand child support.
In a co-production with the UK’s Clover Films, Four Corners meets the children, their mums, and the dad-hunters as they find the missing men and hold them to account.
Four Corners: Sex Tourism — My Father’s Secret, will air from 8.30pm on 8 July on ABC TV and ABC iview.
