Greece becoming rape capital for British women

London, Aug 15 : The number of women from the UK raped on holiday in Greece has hit a disturbing all time high. Forty-one rapes have been reported so far this summer, making the Mediterranean hot spot the most dangerous place for women.

Police officers predicted that this year is likely to be the worst ever for serious sexual assaults on female holidaymakers.

Senior Greek security sources confirmed that the latest figures suggest their country is now the destination where the most rapes are reported by British holidaymakers, Scotsman.com reported.

A police official in Athens said: "The figure of 41 officially reported British rape victims so far is the worst ever in Greek police records.

"At the present rate it is bound to break all previous records and will again give Greece the unenviable record of having the largest number of British rape victims, both in real figures but especially proportionately to the British tourism population."

He added that the majority of male perpetrators are alleged to be drunken British males, followed by Eastern European migrant workers and then Greeks.

The true number of rape cases is probably much higher, since usually only an average of one in four women rape victims report cases to authorities.

They are reluctant to do so because of the embarrassing medical bureaucracy involved and the fear of legal complications, costs and public exposure.

The FCO report gave an eight-point list of advice to British women on how to avoid getting into situations which put them at risk of being attacked.

And Greek police say British women appear to be particularly vulnerable compared to other foreign women for three reasons.

Firstly, because of their large consumption of alcohol, secondly because they are "na¯ve" in befriending strangers and in accepting lifts home, and thirdly the fact that Greece, unlike Spain, has very long expanses of deserted beaches where assaults can be carried out without witnesses.

The claim comes in response to the British Behaviour Abroad Report released earlier this week by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which showed that between mid-2006 and mid-2007, 29 and 28 British women were raped in Spain and Greece respectively.

The report also said that bad behaviour abroad is often fuelled by excessive drinking and has sent the number of Britons arrested overseas soaring.

ANI