Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has promised to criminalise prostitution in the country. The Prime Minister was speaking to supporters at the end of a three day congress for the Socialist Party which took place in Valencia on Sunday 17 October.
Pedro Sanchez promised to take action to outlaw prostitution and said that was part of his manifesto in 2019. The manifesto called prostitution “one of the cruellest of the feminization of poverty and one of the worst forms of violence against women.”
Spain made prostitution illegal in 1995. However, in 2016 the United Nations estimated that the sex industry is worth at 4.2 billion. A survey conducted in 2009 revealed that 1 in 3 Spanish men had paid for sex.
Another report published in 2009 suggest that the figure might be as high as 39 percent. In 2011, United Nations Study stated that Spain is the third biggest prostitution centre globally. The leading countries being Thailand and Puerto Rico.
Prostitution remains unregulated in Spain and sex workers face no punishment as long as they do not do it in public places. Latest estimates indicate that at least 300,000 women work as sex workers in Spain.
Recently, worries have been expressed that some women may be trafficked into prostitution. In 2017, the Spanish police discovered that at least 80 percent of 13,000 women were being exploited against their will.
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