‘Tattoos’ with word NO given out to girls at pools to stop sex attacks
YOUNG girls at German swimming pools are to have “no harassment” warnings temporarily tattooed on their arms to ward off sex attackers.
The stick-on designs feature the word “No” in German and English between a pair of angel’s wings.
Health chiefs in Baden-Wurttemberg, south-west Germany, deny the move is linked to concerns elsewhere over attacks on bathers by migrants.
An internal police report in the northern city of Dusseldorf last month claimed there had been a “surge in sex crimes” linked to foreign nationals. But Veronika WascherGoggerle, women and family representative for the Lake Constance district of Baden-Wurttemberg, insisted the problem was not new.
She said: “Many girls are insecure. What is normal in daily interactions and what should not be allowed?
“Illustrations have been made available at swimming pools and should make this clear.
“The temporary tattoos are an incentive for young swimmers to think about the issue.”
Lake Constance is near the Swiss and French borders and is famous for its many indoor and outdoor pools. Culture clashes after thousands of refugees fled to Germany from the war in Syria have been a cause of concern for a year.
Groping of German women by foreign men was reported from crowded public places in a number of cities.
On New Year’s Eve more than 1,000 women reported being sexually assaulted in Cologne.
Last month’s police report said: “Rape and the sexual abuse of children in bathing establishments has given us grave cause for concern.
“The perpetrators are, for the most part, immigrants.”