Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Spain Looks at Human Trafficking Side of Prostitution

Graham'¯Keeley'¯

   MADRID - Adebiworks in the shadows on LaRambla, Barcelona's famous
   boulevard.

   In normal times, she tries to attract tourists or locals who are out
   for a night out on the city.

   The 36-year-old has lived in Spain for 10 years but when she arrived in
   her adopted home from Nigeria, prostitution was hardly what she had in
   mind.

   "I wanted to come here and do domestic work, you know, send money back
   home. It has not been like that," she told VOA.

   Adebi, who did not want to use her real name, is like many other women
   who have been tricked into prostitution by well-organized sex
   traffickinggangs, who demand that the women pay off adebt by selling
   themselves for sex.

   Prostitution has boomed in Spain since decriminalizing the practicein
   1995.

   The country became known as the brothel of Europe after a 2011
   UnitedNations report said itwas the third biggest capital of the sex
   trade after Thailand and Puerto Rico.

   The sex trade is worth $25 billion per year and about 500,000 people
   work in unlicensed brothels,according to data from Eurostat, the
   European Union Statistics agency.

   About 80%of these women are victims of sextraffickers, saySpanish
   National Police officials.

   New legislation

   Now, Spain's leftist coalition government wants to ban prostitution by
   bringing in a new lawthatwould attempt to penalizeanyone profiting from
   the sex trade.'¯

   "We are on the right path, which has to end in national legislation
   against prostitution and trafficking, which says that our sexuality is
   available to men that we are a commodity which is bought and sold,"
   said Spanish Deputy Prime Minister CarmenCalvolast week.

   "There is trafficking because there is prostitution; if there is no
   prostitution there is no trafficking. We are abolitionists."

   Prostitution occupies something of a legal limbo in Spain; selling
   yourself for sex is not illegal but profiting from it is.

   According to Spanish law, sex trafficking is when one person moves,
   detains or transports someone else for the purpose of profiting
   fromtheirprostitution using fraud, force or coercion.

   Previous attempts to bring in a national law have floundered because
   political parties could not agree.

   Calvohas the support of the far-leftUnidasPodemosparty, the junior
   partner in the coalition government, but seeks to win over the
   opposition conservative People's Party and regional parties.

   More harm than good?

   NachoPardo, a spokesman for the Committee to Support Sex Workers, CATS,
   believes banning prostitution will harm the very people it is designed
   to help.
   "This will not eradicate prostitution. It will not offer people working
   in prostitution and it will help the mafias in the same way as happened
   in the US when prohibited alcohol," he told VOA in a telephone
   interview."I think it will be catastrophic."

   CATS helpsabout 2,000 prostitutes in southeastern Spain eachyear, of
   which about 10%were victims of sex trafficking, saysPardo.

   He said many women, men and transsexuals from Africa and South America,
   became involved in the sex trade in Spain because sex traffickers
   insisted they pay off debts. The traffickers demand payment for the
   cost of smuggling the sex workers and finding them work, but advocates
   say the alleged debts in reality amount to swindling and extortion.

   Nigerian women form the largest group of Africans who operate in
   Spain,Pardosaid. Romanians form the largest group of foreign
   prostitutes in Spain, followed by women from the Dominican Republic and
   Colombia.

   "Most feel deep shame about being involved in the sex trade," he said.
   FILE - Women hold a giant banner reading 'Abolition of prostitution'
   during a demonstration to mark the International Day for the
   Elimination of Violence against Women in Madrid on Nov. 25, 2019.

   RocÃoMora, who has been campaigning against sex trafficking for three
   decades, is the director ofApramp, which helps protect, help and
   reintegration women who are in prostitution.

   She says her team seesalmost 300 women per day who are victims of sex
   trafficking.

   "Since 1985 we have been calling for abolition of prostitution. In a
   country which believes in the state of law, no person should be sold
   for their body," she told VOA. "There is now a need for a comprehensive
   law that criminalizes those who profit from what is a form of violence
   against women."

   Back on the streets of Barcelona, Adebi says all women were forced to
   have sex with clients, often under threat.

   She says some Nigerian women were told they had run up debts of up to
   $60,000 but despite plying their trade for years, they never worked it
   off.

   "Women are fined for being late, not looking good, buying cigarettes
   from a place which is not the sex club they are working in, anything,"
   she says.

   "That whole film with Richard Gere was a myth. There is no such thing
   as Pretty Woman."

.