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PROSTITUTION

Human trafficking in Norway is ‘risk free’

Organized crime groups involved in illegally bringing sex workers to Norway are so seldom caught or prosecuted that they view the activity as a risk-free business, according to the sex-worker support charity Rosa.

Published: 15 April 2015 17:06 CEST
Human trafficking in Norway is 'risk free'
Prostitutes are a common site on Karl Johans Gate at night. Photo: Claudia Regina/Flickr
"They look at Norway as a risk-free and profitable market, because there is a lot of money in circulation, high demand from men who want to buy sex and no risk of getting caught.” Mildrid Mikkelsen, the head of ROSA, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. 
 
Only 36 cases of human trafficking for prostitution were reported in Norway last year, and of those cases, only two led to a trial. 
 
”They [the police] have been working with such limited resources that it has been virtually risk-free for organized crime in Norway," she added. "We know of specific cases with evidence that have been dropped. It is simply an untenable situation.”
 
Harald Bøhler, head of the organized crime unit within Oslo's police, defended the police's record, arguing that cases of human trafficking and prostitution were notoriously difficult to bring to prosecution.
 
”The crime is often reported some time after the offence has occurred," he told NRK. "Witnesses and others involved don’t stay here in the country, making investigations difficult." 
 
According to Rosa, victims of human trafficking often view reporting the crime to the police as futile, given the proportion of reported cases which make it to court. 
 
Often those who report cases risk being deported, while only those whose cases make it to court receive any police protection. 
 
Frequently, human trafficking victims are returned to Italy under the Dublin Agreement, because that is where they are first registered as asylum seekers by the Nigerian-run human trafficking organizations based in the country. 
 
“When the women return, they are punished by the traffickers for reporting them to the police," Esohe Aghatise, an Italian expert on human trafficking told NRK. "They are forced to make money through prostitution to make up for lost income.” 

PROSTITUTION

Spain’s top court reinstates first sex workers’ union

Spanish sex workers have the right to form their own union, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, overturning an earlier court decision ordering the dissolution of Spain's first such labour organisation.

Published: 2 June 2021 16:34 CEST
Spain's top court reinstates first sex workers' union
Photo: Oscar del Pozo/AFP

Known as OTRAS (or “the Sex Workers’ Organisation”), the union was discretely set up in August 2018 but was closed three months later by order of the National Court following an appeal by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

But following an appeal, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of OTRAS, saying that its statutes, which had triggered the initial legal challenge, were “in line with the law” and that sex workers “have the fundamental right to freedom of association and the right to form a union”.

In its November 2018 ruling, the National Court had argued that allowing the union to exist amounted to “recognising the act of procurement as lawful”.

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Contacted by AFP, the union did not wish to comment.

When it was founded, OTRAS received the green light from the labour ministry and its statutes were publicly registered in the official gazette the day before the government went into a summer recess.

But three weeks later, the government — which portrays itself as “feminist and in favour of the abolition of prostitution” according to Sanchez’s Twitter feed at the time — started legal moves against it.

In Spain, prostitution is neither legal nor illegal but it is tolerated.

Although it is not recognised as employment, there is a large number of licensed brothels throughout the country.

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