The age at which young women should be allowed to become prostitutes should be raised from 18 to 23, according to Amsterdam city council executive Lodewijk Asscher.
And Asscher wants the city's famous red light district to be prostitution-free between 4am and 8am, so that efforts can be focused during the day on tracking down pimps and human traffickers.
'18-year-old girls from Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary are extremely vulnerable. They are brought here but they are unable to resist the pressure. Women of 23 are more adult, more resistant,' Asscher is quoted as saying in Tuesday's Telegraaf newspaper
Ukraine's other crisis: Weak currency, cheap flights spur 'sex tourism'
When Tonya came to Kyiv (Kiev) from her small hometown in western Ukraine to study, it was a route out of the dreary provincial life she had grown to hate. She struggled to make ends meet. Her parents, with a combined monthly income of around $200, were hardly in a position to help fund her studies. Tonya feared she would have to give up and return home. But then she found a way to stay: selling her body to foreign men. "My choice was to work as a prostitute or go home," she says, glancing around nervously. "I would never have done it but for the circumstances. I don't want to work as a prostitute, but I need to get an education so I can get a decent job."
A survey last autumn by FEMEN revealed that an astonishing 67.5 percent of women in Kyiv between 17 and 22 had received an offer from foreigners of money for sex. And with the Euro 2012 soccer tournament fast approaching, when thousands of male fans are expected to descend on the country, concerns that the problem is not being taken seriously enough by the authorities or society led FEMEN to take to the streets to draw attention to the problem.A police estimate in February forecast that the sex industry is set to more than double in value, going from $700 million in 2008 to $1.5 billion this year.
Prostitution - Spain holds 'voodoo' traffickers
Spanish police have arrested 23 people suspected of trafficking Nigerian women into the country and forcing them into prostitution by using voodoo curses. Experts said the women were scared into submission because of a vow they were forced to take on the graves of their ancestors before they left Nigeria. The money the women earned was then kept until they had paid off the debt incurred getting to Spain, police said. The traffickers allegedly supplied women for the sex trade across Europe.
Dutch experience shows legalized prostitution still a problem - by Heleen Mees
Prostitution is virtually the only part of the personal services industry in the Netherlands that works. One can’t get a manicure in Amsterdam without booking an appointment two weeks in advance, but men can buy sex anytime — and at an attractive price. The legalization of prostitution in October 2000 merely codified a long-standing Dutch tradition of tolerance towards buying and selling sex. But is legalization the right approach? Even in the Netherlands, women and girls who sell their bodies are routinely threatened, beaten, raped and terrorized by pimps and customers. In a recent criminal trial, two German-Turkish brothers stood accused of forcing more than 100 women to work in Amsterdam’s red-light district. The attorney who represented one of the victims said that most of the women came from families marred by incest, alcohol abuse and parental suicide. Or they come from countries in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia and have fallen victim to human trafficking, lured by decent job offers or simply sold by their parents.
These women are Amsterdam’s leading tourist attraction (followed by the coffee shops that sell marijuana). But an estimated 50 percent to 90 percent of them are actually sex slaves, raped on a daily basis with police idly standing by. It is incomprehensible that their clients are not prosecuted for rape, but Dutch politicians argue that it cannot be established whether or not a prostitute works voluntarily.
Its forbidden to buy sexual services anywhere for Norwegian Citizens – but what now? - Stavanger Aftenblad
From the New Year onward it became illegal for Norwegian citizens to buy sex. "Human beings are not trade items," maintains the Norwegian Minister of Justice. Now in its 14th day of operation, a new law in Norway makes it a criminal act to pay for sexual favors both within the country and outside it if you’re a Norwegian citizen. Based partly on a similar law instituted by Sweden in 1999, it is expected to greatly reduce the number of prostitutes currently working the streets of Oslo and Stavanger. The prostitutes selling their services, however, will not be liable to prosecution under the new law. Only the customers will face charges of buying sex. Those caught could be given six months in jail, a fine, or both. If the sexual act involves minors or other special circumstances, the penalties could be much greater.
Amsterdam -- Not As Fun As It Used to Be
Less brothels, pot and sex shops in Amsterdam? The nerve! The real Sin City -- Amsterdam, Netherlands -- is closing down a lot of its marijuana cafes, brothels and sex shops in an effort to run organized crime out of town. Officials are also closing down the gambling parlors, peep shows and massage parlors that are being used by drug dealers to launder money. Who would have thought the world's most famous destination for prostitution and drugs had so much crime?
Turkey's prostitutes seek to establish a union
Activists and sex workers in Turkey are working on a project to establish Turkey’s first "sex workers" union. They are hopeful about finding a solution to their problems and changing society’s approach toward sex workers. They will organize an awareness walk to bring attention to their issues. Prostitution is mentioned in the Turkish Penal Code and sex workers have to be registered according to the law. However, statistics show that many sex workers are unregistered and have no health or social security. “Only 126 sex workers are registered in Istanbul, but the real number is much higher than this,” said Muhtar Çokar, a doctor who helps sex workers access free and easy medical support.
“The number of registered sex workers in Turkey is 3,500 according to police data,” said Çokar. “That is too small a number compared to Ankara Trade Chamber, which said there are around 100,000 unregistered sex workers in total in Turkey.”
The Sex Industry in Bulgaria Generates 1 Billion Euro Income - by Stefan Nikolov
Ex Secretary of the police Tzvyatko Tzvetkov said at a round table that the monthly income of a prostitute is 12-18 thousand Euro. According to Tzvetkov the total turnover from the sex industry in Bulgaria is 1 billion Euro. There are 300 clubs with prostitutes in Bulgaria as 100 of them are in Sofia. Tzvetkov added that the prostitution business is third in Bulgaria after the drugs business and the stolen cars business. He also noted that in Bulgaria policemen protect prostitutes, trucks with cigarettes, drugs traffic and a solution must be devised for breaking police connections with crime.
Sex Trade in Europe: Europe’s fight against trafficking in human beings, a new form of slavery - by Terry Davis
Europe may well have abolished slavery 200 years ago, but it has not yet been stamped out. Across Europe criminal gangs are getting rich through the trade in human beings—and many governments are not doing enough to stop it. Trafficking in human beings is not the most discreet form of crime. Its victims can be found every evening on the banks of a canal near the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg, and in other cities in Georgia and across Europe. The heavy make-up does nothing to conceal their anguish and despair. Occasionally, they are rounded up by the police and deported to their countries of origin. In most cases, they will be forced back into slavery in some other corner of Europe before the ink of the signatures on their deportation orders has had time to dry. Regrettably, criminals always seem to be one step ahead. While the traffickers are getting rich, the trafficked are paying the price.
To put an end to this frustrating and shameful state of affairs, the Council of Europe produced a groundbreaking new Convention in 2005 to strengthen international co-operation, prevent trafficking, prosecute traffickers, help the victims and create a monitoring mechanism to ensure that governments comply with what they have signed. The Convention will enter into force on 1 February and have immediate legal effect in the first ten countries to ratify it: Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Georgia, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, France and Norway, which have ratified it in January, it will enter into force on 1 May.
Sex Trade in the EU - Human trafficking campaign ends in Czech Republic by Kimberly Ashton
The Czech Republic has long been a destination for sex tourists from the West. Brothels line the road in some border towns and hordes of stag partygoers have filed through Prague’s numerous sex clubs.
Now a nonprofit group has teamed with the government to expose a side of the industry some customers would rather not think about — or don’t know about — and to seek help from them. “The customer might be for the victim of human trafficking the only connecting link to the outside world and the only person who can primarily help her,” said Kristina Klepková of the nonprofit group International Organization for Migration (IOM). Klepková led a three-month program, called Together Against Human Trafficking, which ended last week, to raise awareness of sex slavery in the Czech Republic.
Sex in Britain: I pay a man for regular sex
Every month for three years I have spent up to euro 800 on Justin, who makes me a calmer and happier person. Once, sometimes twice, a month I meet up with Justin, a 36-year-old divorcé. We go out for a meal and maybe to a club before spending the night in a hotel. I am a divorced mum and work part time to spend as much time as I can with my four children. Justin also has four children. But what differentiates our dates from the norm is that I pay for Justin’s company, including having sex with him.
My ex husband and I had a great sex life, so when our marriage ended, I decided to go on-line and see if anyone out there could fill the gap. I found a huge number of websites and adverts offering a wide range of services. In the end I found Justin. He costs euro 270 for an hour, euro 365 for three hours and euro 800 for overnight – and every penny is well spent. Our first encounter was nerve-racking and my main worry was that I might not find him attractive, although I definitely went out with sex on my mind. I booked into a hotel and spent ages getting ready, then Justin came to collect me and we went out to dinner. He’s very good-looking and extremely fit, so despite my nerves there was an instant spark and we had a great time.
Prostitution Britain: Market forces - by Mark Gould
In Croydon, south London - home to Lunar House, the UK's border and immigration agency - it appears that buying a trafficked woman for sex is as easy as ordering pizza. That is what concerned residents, posing as punters, were shocked to discover when they phoned 100 brothels, saunas and escort agencies advertising in their local papers. They found that 84% of the women being sold for sex were from overseas, most of them trafficked.
Official figures estimate that some 4,000 women a year are trafficked into the UK to feed a growing sex industry facilitated by shrinking borders and changing attitudes towards buying sex.
