German politicians are pushing to ban sex work, more than two decades after it was legalised, amid stark warnings that the country is swiftly becoming “the brothel of Europe,” according to The Daily Mail.
The sale of sex was legalised in 2002 by the previous centre-left government in order to give the 250,000 sex workers operating in Germany employment rights, access to social benefits and the right to sue clients who refuse to pay for services.
The centre-right CDU party is among those calling for a partial re-criminalisation of the sex-selling practice, arguing that the 2002 legalisation failed to achieve its goals of giving sex workers more rights and recognition under German law.
Dorothee Bär, the deputy leader of the parliamentary group for Germany’s two main Christian Democratic parties, the CDU and the CSU, stated that almost all of the country’s sex workers came from abroad and did not have documents, placing them at the disposal of traffickers and pimps.
“There can be no real equality as long as we accept that hundreds of thousands of women are treated like slaves. It is an offence against human dignity that we urgently need to end.”
She stated that pimps and traffickers had benefited the most from the legalisation of the sex industry.
Germany has become the brothel of Europe. The women are mistreated in the worst possible way by their clients and pimps.
The opposition party, the CDU, wants to adopt the so-called the Nordic model, according to which clients can be prosecuted for buying sex, but sex workers are not penalised. Sweden first adopted such a model in 1999. The government soon found that between 1999 and 2008, the street prostitution was halved.
Shortly thereafter, a number of countries, including Norway, Iceland, Canada and Northern Ireland, passed legislation modelled on Nordic countries to partially decriminalise sex work.
The bill proposed by the CDU would close brothels and ban the renting out of flats to sex workers. Bär argues that such measures would reduce but not eradicate sex work in Germany.
The proposal is gaining momentum among Germany’s ruling party, the Social Democrats. Leni Breymaier, an SD MP, called the opposition’s proposal “a step in the right direction.”
Organisations representing sex workers are dissatisfied with the proposals, saying there is no evidence that legislation modelled on the Nordic countries helps women or reduces sex work.
The Professional Association for Erotic and Sexual Services, which represents brothels and independent prostitutes, stated that penalising clients would only make the work more dangerous.
“It is always remarkable to see the means by which the opponents of procuring sex try to realise their moral ideas — at the expense of the rights of sex workers, customers and brothel operators and ultimately at the expense of a tolerant, free and rights-based society.”
