Sun, Oct 30, 2022 page12

• Spanish sex workers fight push against prostitution

  • By Joanna Gill and Oscar Valero / Thomson Reuters Foundation, MADRID
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  It was not how she imagined a fresh start in Spain, but sex work has become a financial lifeline for Peruvian migrant Angela and relatives back home, helping to pay for her father’s cancer treatment and put her brother through medical school.

  “You have projects, ideas for life, but life surprises you,” said the 32-year-old, who — like many Spanish sex workers — is angry and worried over ruling party plans to crack down on the sex trade in a bill that sets out to champion women’s rights.

  The draft law being drawn up by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party would make it a crime to buy sex, and introduce tougher penalties for pimping — seeking to effectively end prostitution and sex trafficking by tackling demand.

  

  A police officer in Madrid on Oct. 4 removes a fence with protest signs reading: “Sex work brings health and well-being,” “We are all workers” and “Enough,” after a demonstration against a bill to abolish sex work in Spain.

  Photo: Reuters

  Online sex work, such as video calls, and the production of pornographic photographs and videos fall within the scope of the proposed legislation. Another law already in force bans advertisements for prostitution.

  A parliamentary vote on the proposals had been due early this month, but some lawmakers have agreed to talks with sex workers that could lead to amendments being made.

  Part of a broader women’s rights push by the Socialists, the draft legislation treats sex workers as victims, rather than criminals as would be the case under a ban on prostitution.

  

  Protesters in Madrid on Oct. 4 pose for a photograph during a demonstration against a proposed law to abolish sex work in Spain.

  Photo: Reuters

  The changes would not penalize sex workers, said Andrea Fernandez, a Socialist lawmaker and coauthor of the bill who believes all sex work stems from exploitation that should be punishable by law.

  Sex work has existed in a legal gray zone in Spain and is largely tolerated, although sexual exploitation and pimping, the act of controlling sex workers or taking a part of their earnings, are illegal.

  Sex workers fear the proposed crackdown will not end prostitution and could instead increase the dangers for people selling sex.

  “It will continue, but only in worse conditions,” said Angela, who asked not to give her full name to protect her identity, about the proposals, which have sparked street protests by sex workers.

  At demonstrations, some held placards reading: “Sex work is work” and “Feminist whores,” while sex workers’ association Astras has threatened to name and shame politician clients in a bid to shoot down the new rules.

  Rakel, 41, a sex worker who belongs to StopAbolition, a campaign group set up to fight the bill, said if passed it would drive sex work underground, raising the risk of HIV infections and violence due to unsafe conditions such as street work.

  “The government that approves this law is going to throw us into the arms of the mafia,” she said, asking not to give her full name.

  She said that only criminal networks would be willing to rent apartments to sex workers, as landlords would fear prosecution under the draft law’s broader definition of pimping.

  Spain’s Socialist-majority government forged ahead with the legislation despite deep divisions over the text within the party and coalition partner, Podemos. Critics say the initiative is overly paternalistic and obscured by moral judgements about the sex trade.

  The bill has also split the country’s women’s rights movement, pitting women against women in an acrimonious debate that lawmaker Mireia Vehi said was getting “out of hand.”

  “It’s almost a debate about who can or cannot be called a feminist,” said Vehi, who rejects the government’s approach.

  “It’s a model that only leads to the persecution of women, that does not end prostitution, or put an end to trafficking,” she said, calling for the consideration of alternatives such as decriminalization or even a universal basic income.

  About 70,300 women work in Spain’s sex industry, according to the latest estimate published by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS.

  That would make it one of the biggest markets for prostitution in Europe, a statistic Socialist politicians have used to strengthen arguments that a deregulation implemented in the mid-1990s has failed.

  There has been support for the government’s plans among groups working with trafficked women forced into sex work.

  However, many sex workers reject the argument that most women working as prostitutes are coerced into the trade, saying that the vast majority have freely chosen to do so.

  “They exploited me more when I worked as a waitress,” said Angela, adding that she had rarely heard of women being forced into sex work.

  The debate in Spain comes as the EU reviews its 2011 anti-trafficking directive, which could make buying sex a crime across the whole bloc.

  European countries take varying approaches to the sex trade.

  France and Sweden punish clients, while sex workers in Croatia and Romania face arrest and prosecution. In Greece and the Netherlands, sex work is legal and sex workers must apply for a license and follow rules on where and how they work.

  Earlier this year, Belgium decriminalized sex work, with a labor law that supporters said would let sex workers set their own terms, and could reduce exploitation and violence.

  For now, Spanish sex workers’ efforts are focused on securing amendments to the Socialists’ bill, including reversing the criminalization of buying sex and narrowing the definition of pimping to avoid landlords becoming liable.

  “The amendments may give us a little hope, but I think it will not be much,” Astras head Susana Pastor said.
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