Prime Minister ‘prohibits’ prostitution in Spain, threatens to criminalize paid sex

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain had covertly prohibited prostitution in the country, threatening to criminalize sex work in the country.

Prime Minister Sanchez addressing his supporters at the end of his Socialist Party’s three-day congress in Valencia on Sunday, declared that prostitution “enslaves” women.
Millions of men in Spain have been identified to pay for sex, making prostitution a huge industry in the country. A report released in 2009 was said to indicate that the country has high figure of sex patronage to 39%. A UN study in 2011 had revealed that Spain is the third biggest entity for prostitution in the world, trailing Thailand, and Puerto Rico.
UN survey in 2016 revealed that the sex industry in Spain had estimated financial value of €3.7 billion (£3.1 billion, $4.2billion).

Spain in 1995 decriminalized prostitution. Since the decriminalization, the sex industry has grown tremendously in the country. About 300,000 women were identified to work in Spain as prostitutes.

A survey in 2009 revealed that 1 in 3 prosecution is decriminalized, indicating the expansion of illicit sex and growth of sex hawkers in the country. 

While Spain currently un-regulates prostitution, with no punishment for hawkers who willingly offer paid sexual services, so long the sex is not done in public places, an intermediary or proxy between a sex worker and a client is declared illegal by the country. Apparently, the system permits direct negotiations between the sex service provider and the person engaging the patronage.

The growth of the sex industry in Spain culminated into the rise in the trafficking of women and girls across the world into the country for prostitution. The Police in Spain had in 2017, apprehended 13,000 women in anti-trafficking raids. The discovered that a third party exploited about 80% of the sex workers against their will.

The Socialist Party, led by Sanchez, had in 2019, its election manifesto promised to delegalize prostitution in Spain.

The Socialist Party manifesto declared prostitution as “one of the cruelest aspects of the feminization of poverty and one of the worst forms of violence against women”. However, two tears after, the party government did not make law prohibiting sex work in Spain.

Prime Minister Sanchez on Sunday revisited the party’s manifesto, disclosing the political will to enforce or fulfill the promise.