There are many countries across the globe that allow prostitution. In Germany, prostitution is legal, as are brothels. All over the world, sex workers are routinely abused and trafficked.
In 2014, Harvard Law School published a piece explaining that “Countries with legalized prostitution are associated with higher human trafficking inflows than countries where prostitution is prohibited.”
“Criminalization of prostitution in Sweden resulted in the shrinking of the prostitution market and the decline of human trafficking inflows. Cross-country comparisons of Sweden with Denmark (where prostitution is decriminalized) and Germany (expanded legalization of prostitution) are consistent with the quantitative analysis, showing that trafficking inflows decreased with criminalization and increased with legalization,” it added.
Earlier this week, one European country passed a first-of-its-kind law surrounding sex workers.
On Sunday, Belgium made history by becoming the first country in the world to give sex workers formal employment contracts that grant them access to sick days, pension and maternity leave. The law was initially passed in May but recently took effect.
According to BBC, sex work “will be treated like any other job” going forward.
Sophie, a sex worker who spoke to the outlet, said, “It’s an opportunity for us to exist as people.”
Sophie told the BBC that she had to work when she was nine months pregnant.
“I was having sex with clients one week before giving birth,” she admitted. Sophie is a mother of five. Her fifth child was born via C-section. She reportedly went back to work immediately after this.
“I couldn’t afford to stop because I needed the money,” she claimed.
Going forward, sex workers will be entitled to maternity leave paid for by their employer. Sex work was decriminalized in the country in 2022.
“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said. “We need every country to be moving in that direction.”
Mel, a sex worker who spoke to the BBC, explained that she was forced to perform a sex act on a client one time without protection. During this time, there was an STI spreading through the brothel she worked at.
“My choice was either to spread the disease, or make no money,” she said.
Now, she says she is able to refuse any client or sexual act she feels uncomfortable with.
“I could have pointed the finger at my madam [employer] and said: ‘You're violating these terms and this is how you should treat me.’ I would have been legally protected.”
Going forward, the pimps who control sex work will be allowed to legally operate. Anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime will not be allowed to employ sex workers.
“I think many businesses will have to shut down, because a lot of employers have a criminal record,” says Kris Reekmans. He and his wife Alexandra run a massage parlour in Belgium that employs sex workers for certain services.
“I hope the bad employers will be shut out and the good people, who want to do this profession honestly, will stay - and the more the better,” he says.
Critics spoke to the BBC and explained that the new law does nothing to stop sex trafficking, exploitation and abuse that comes along with sex work.
“It [the new law] is dangerous because it normalises a profession that is always violent at its core,” Julia Crumière, a volunteer with Isala - an NGO that helps sex workers on the streets in Belgium, told the BBC. She added that most women involved in sex work want to leave and get a “normal” job.
“It’s about not being outside in the freezing weather and having sex with strangers who pay to access your body,” she explained.
“In what other job would you need a panic button? It’s not the oldest profession in the world, it’s the oldest exploitation in the world.”