Sex tourism in Europe
Regulated, clean, and always armed with condoms and STD checks, the sex tourism industry in Europe looks healthy compared to many seedy corners of the world. But what do we know about the sex tourism industry in Europe other than the red light district in the Netherlands? How are the women treated in Europe compared to other places? Are women kidnapped and forced to perform for their pimps, or is every man and woman voluntary and free to leave whenever they like? We will explore these topics in the article below.
The sex tourism industry in the EU.
The history and assets word in the EU or Europe has been a mixed bag. Some countries had it completely regulated like any other industry, and some countries have both selling sex and buying sex as crimes. The formation of the EU brought more regulation to the world's oldest profession. Not every country in the EU has prostitutes, but if you travel to another country to visit a prostitute, you cannot be arrested.
Here are the ten countries in Europe where prostitution is regulated and run like an industry.
- The Netherlands
- Germany
- Austria
- Switzerland
- Latvia
- Hungary
- Turkey
- Greece
This map show even more data:
So, where do the workers who make up the sex industry come from?
Industry large and small all over the world adhere to the golden law of supply and demand, and the sex industry is no different. Not only do certain acts or favors cost more based on the level of intimacy, but if there is a shortage of women available, then prices will go up as well.
Across the EU as a whole, there are millions of sex workers. In Germany alone, there are over a million sex workers, Some of the sex workers are citizens, and some are not. The vast majority of these sex workers are women, but in recent years, the number of men in the sexual industry continues to rise as women are told to embrace their bodies and sexuality.
Of course, there is also an area of the red light district for gay prostitutes and gay interactions.
How does prostitution work in the EU?
The sex worker must register with the government so they can record their clients and their income. They are subject to STD checks, and they can call the police in case the worker needs to file charges against a client. Having police on their side is one of the most important ways to reverse the fear sex workers have from the industry and the law.
When a prostitute wishes to work that day, she must rent a room from a building designed to provide a safe haven for prostitutes to work. Depending on where she is and how popular the red light area is during that time of the year, she could pay from $90 to $160 for the room.
Then the prostitutes are free to find customers and negotiate prices. If you are a prostitute working in Germany, then the average amount of money you must make is about $800 in a single night, so the average price that is quoted to a client is about $195. The sex worker can make a customer wear a condom, and they can refuse sex if he does not want to. Although that might mean a loss of income since he is no longer paying.
If a client is becoming too rough with the sex worker and starts to hurt her, there is a panic button within the room that will ring the security guards who can then have him arrested by the police.
With police protection and government regulation, are there still sex slaves being trafficked in from other countries?
Unfortunately, the regulation of sex in the EU has not cut down on the number of trafficked women who are forced to come to the EU's biggest red-light districts. The largest brothel in Europe is not located in one of the EU's healthy and well-regulated red-light districts. It is located in Hungary, where thousands upon thousands of women looking to escape poverty sell themselves so that they can make some income level that will keep them from starving. These women are not managed by themselves but through other people who demand that they consistently keep up some level of work while skimming a percentage of themselves.
These women, of course, are not allowed to set the price for their interactions with clients, and they are usually forced to work for far lower pay than other legal prostitutes. The money they receive is about ¼ the pay of a regular prostitute. Even worst situation is in Thailand.
The countries with the most traffic women are the Netherlands and Germany, who, coincidentally, have the biggest sex industry in the EU and Europe. Countries have made efforts to stop the amount of human trafficking into their countries, but tracking trafficked women, and their abusers are difficult, no matter what part of the world. Many women feel like they cannot speak out. They chose to go with the pimp because they promised the money, and they now regret the decision. Some are even placed into it and must work to pay off the loans they entered in order to come to a higher-paying country. Netherlands and Germany have tried to change the laws dealing with illegal prostitutes in their countries, but every time, they have been met with extreme backlash from clients who wish to keep using the women for their own sexual gain.
Conclusion
No matter where you are in the world, no matter how regulated you create your sexual industry, there are still exploiters and the exploited. However, the EU is in a prime position to crack down on pimps and underage trafficking while enabling prostitutes to make money for themselves and protect them from clients who wish to hurt them. The first thing that you should do should be to crack down on the movement of prostitutes in the EU, no matter if they are EU citizens or from outside the EU. That would stop a lot of trafficking from occurring but protecting the prostitutes.