How and for what reason do certain countries support escort trade?
Dealing with the
escort industry falls under controlling prostitution in many countries, ignoring
the conceptual differences between them. Apart from that, the issue of the support
of escorts is the subject of a global debate around the world. The debate
always revolves around human rights, the right to freely sell the body, as well
as the organized crime. Human right activists, of course, advocate that in all
countries, escorts and prostitutes should be free to pursue sex work.
Amnesty
International is, for example, one of the world's largest human right defending
organizations with more than seven million activists who are ready to stand by
escorts and prostitutes. In addition to protecting the rights of escorts, they
also provide assistance to those escorts who have become victims of rape,
bullying or human trafficking.
In addition to
human rights defenders, many countries support escorts and prostitutes on state
level. In Switzerland, for example, they can work legally, and all they need to
do is report their activity to the local authority and to pay tax after their
activity. The situation is similar in Germany and the Netherlands as well where
prostitution and the escort industry are regulated thus it offers also legal
employment opportunity for lot of women. These countries (later on in the Laws
chapter laws regulation prostitution in other countries will be discussed in
details), while providing legal employment for sex workers, have been
generating large state income by taxing prostitution.
Of the liberal
countries, Sweden chose to protect prostitutes by the new pack of laws
regulating prostitution in 1999. The Swedes thus penalize sex clients instead
of escorts and prostitutes, who are allowed to work legally. The Swedish model
has proved to be working therefore in 2009 two more countries, Norway and
Iceland, also joined to conciliate escorts and prostitutes with the society. In
Europe in recent years, Northern Ireland (2015) and France (2016) changed their
laws regulating prostitution to follow the Swedish model.
In Ireland,
England, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Estonia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the
Czech Republic, escort industry and prostitution is legal, but the organized
form of the sex business (brothels, pimpery, public procurement) is strictly
forbidden.
Apart from the
liberal Europe, with the exception of some Asian countries (Thailand, Vietnam),
all forms of prostitution are prohibited and strictly sanctioned.
Why is prostitution
opposed by some countries? Many countries support escorts and other prostitution-related
jobs by banning the purchase of sexual service. Not so long time ago,
Singapore, which has become one of the most advanced Asian countries in the
world today, at a World Conference on prostitution and escort industry voiced
that they do not have problems with the escort trade and selling sexual
services, but with the organized crime infiltrated the sex business, namely
human trafficking. In their view, decriminalization does not do any good to
escorts, but to criminals primarily. On the other hand, they are afraid that
the making prostitution and escort service legal will lead to sex tourism
similar to that of Thailand.
According to
some experts, Germany, by legalizing prostitution, has reached exactly the
opposite of what they really wanted. According to some studies, legalization of
sex work forces tens of thousands of women - mostly - to prostitution and
escort service due to greedy brothels and violent pimps and other criminals.
So there are two
approaches, two separate opinions how to protect sex work and eskorts with their
arguments, legalization, or even banning.