Prostitution in Lithuania is illegal, but it is common. Sex trafficking is a problem in the country. Both prostitution itself and buying sex are prohibited by the Code of Administrative Offences. Prostitution itself and the clients of prostitutes are criminalised by Article 1 of the Administrative Code. Repeat offenders may also be subject to administrative arrest for up to thirty days [7]. The following are offences under the criminal code: [8]. Lithuania is a source, transit, and destination country for women and girls subjected to sex trafficking.
Observers estimate 40 percent of identified Lithuanian trafficking victims are women and girls subjected to sex trafficking within the country. Lithuanian women are also subjected to sex trafficking in Western Europe and Scandinavia. Vietnamese adults and children transiting through Lithuania may be trafficking victims.
The approximately 4, boys and girls institutionalised in more than 95 orphanages are especially vulnerable to trafficking. Articles and of the criminal code prohibit all forms of trafficking and prescribe penalties ranging from two to 12 years imprisonment.
In March , prosecutors announced an investigation into allegations that the director of an orphanage sexually exploited boys and operated a sex trafficking ring inside the institution, offering young boys to paedophiles. The investigation remained ongoing during the reporting period. In January , prosecutors announced the investigation of a state-run residential institution for children with special needs; teenage residents allegedly had been subjecting girl residents to sex trafficking.
In March , the court sentenced four men to two to four and a half years in jail for sex with juvenile residents of this orphanage and imposed one to three years probation sentences to four girls for facilitating prostitution. Prosecutors will appeal the decision asking the higher instance court to sentence the criminals for human trafficking.
