It is just days before the World Cup kicks off, and Brazil’s one million sex workers are preparing to cash in.
Unfinished stadiums are furiously being revamped, chaotic public transport is being desperately tweaked, tourist-targeting businesses are gearing up and prostitutes are taking free English classes.
Brazil has long been considered a popular erotic destination for those seeking sexual experiences abroad, now, the country's street workers are making sure they take advantage of the big event.
More than 3.7 million football fans are this week expected to flood Brazil, where prostitution is legal.
These images, taken this week in the Vila Mimosa prostitution zone, show a darker reality of what will be happening off pitch during the World Cup.
Brazil's Sex Workers
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Open Image Modal'I'm kind of sick of it already. I hope it is good for business but it hasn't been yet.' (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image Modal'They need to start organising things because it's a mess.' (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image Modal 'It's going to be awesome, a lot of gringos will be coming here. I hope they use our services and don't just drink.' (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalClaudia said she has worked as a prostitute since the age of 12. (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image Modal'They spend money on tourists but they don't spend money on us. The health care is terrible, the education is terrible, we don't see any of the benefits of that money.' (credit:Getty Images)
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In downtown Belo Horizonte are 23 brothels, known as zonas, hidden up narrow staircases and between grim-looking shops, The Independent has reported.
A number of the zonas’s sex workers are getting English classes from a volunteer to cash in on the six matches the city’s Mineirão stadium will host.
“For sure [the city’s prostitutes] will get more money with the World Cup,” a desk worker at a union for sex workers told The Independent.
“In the nightclubs they’ll be earning a lot. It’s normal for foreign guys to look for them, they always do, and now there’ll be more foreign guys. They’ll do very well.”
Reports have also provided more horrifying accounts of other preparations underway across Brazil.
Children are being forced to sell themselves for sex on the streets of Brazil to cash in on the waves of football fans heading to the World Cup.
A Sunday Mirror investigation last year revealed how hundreds of poverty stricken children, some aged just 11, are being sold to workers building Sao Paulo’s showcase World Cup ground.
Is Brazil ready to host a World Cup?
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Open Image ModalThe Tancredo Neves International Airport in Confins (MG), is the gateway to thousands of Brazilians and foreign tourists for the next five weeks... Or at least it will be if it's finished.
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Open Image ModalWhen the pictures were taken, still less than half of the proposed works for the World Cup have been completed. (credit:LINCON ZARBIETTI/O TEMPO/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO)
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Open Image ModalBrazilian authorities insist they're ready, but passengers may find themselves in for a rough landing. (credit:LINCON ZARBIETTI/O TEMPO/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO)
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Open Image ModalExperts blame poor planning and excessive government control for the airport problems (credit:Instagram/@lunagontijoresende)
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Open Image ModalPresident Dilma Rousseff has dismissed complaints that Brazil isn't ready. (credit:LINCON ZARBIETTI/O TEMPO/ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO)
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Open Image Modal"We aren't building airports just for the World Cup, just for FIFA," President Dilma Rousseff recently said. "We are building for Brazilians." (credit:Instagram/@flabarros_1975)
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Open Image ModalThe Tancredo Neves International Airport, however, looks far from ready. (credit:Instagram/@mthzbarbosa)
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Open Image ModalArriving tourists will be sharing the airport with dozens of workers. (credit:Instagram/@gvizane)
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Open Image ModalThis, meanwhile, is the state of a stadium building site. Work is continuing at the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba, Brazil. (credit:AP)
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Open Image ModalOn the eve of the first training session of Uruguay's national football team, employees of a cleaning company pose for a picture at the Arena do Jacare in Sete Lagoas. (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalBrazilian Army soldiers take part in a simulated explosion of a radioactive device at Mane Garrincha National Stadium during a safety drill at Mane Garrincha National stadium in Brasilia on June 9. (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalThis May 9, 2014 shows that work continues at the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba, Brazil. (credit:AP)
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Open Image ModalWorkers fix a banner before the 2014 soccer World Cup at the Arena da Baixada stadium in Curitiba, Brazil,
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Open Image ModalA graffiti depicting Tatubola, the mascot of the World Cup, on a wall of the Maracana metro station, as restoration works take place. (credit:Getty Images)
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Open Image ModalMen at work in the unfinished Arena Corinthians stadium, in Sao Paulo (credit:EPA)
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Open Image ModalA worker puts cement on the floor of the unfinished Arena Corinthians stadium, in Sao Paulo (credit:EPA)
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Open Image ModalA man paints the floor of a decoration on June 8, 2014 in Itaquera neighborhood, on the east side of Sao Paulo, Brazil, near the Arena Sao Paulo stadium, where the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2014 will take place. (credit:Getty Images)