Legal prostitution in Germany: A failure? • FRANCE 24 English — Transcript

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1. 0:02welcome to France 24 I'm kavan gorani in
2. 0:05this edition of reporters we head to
3. 0:07Germany where sex work has been legal
4. 0:09since 2002 today the country has about
5. 0:1228,000 sex workers and 2,000 businesses
6. 0:16offering sexual Services legalizing
7. 0:19prostitution and pimping was meant to
8. 0:21bring more security and autonomy to sex
9. 0:24workers but thousands more still work
10. 0:27off the books and studies show about 90%
11. 0:29% of sex workers operate under the
12. 0:32control of a pimp an May and Nick Spicer
13. 0:35sent this report on the two faces of
14. 0:37Germany's sex
15. 0:39[Music]
16. 0:55[Music]
17. 0:58work
18. 1:01strip clubs sex shops and broel
19. 1:04prostitution in the St py District in
20. 1:07Hamburg is out in the open in your face
21. 1:09even a draw for tourists just come for a
22. 1:13gander the red light district and the
23. 1:15Raper band a street over a kilometer
24. 1:18long are an integral part of the city's
25. 1:20reputation the areas draw people from
26. 1:23across Germany and the world we come
27. 1:26from China and in China we can see see
28. 1:29anything like this it's perfectly normal
29. 1:32it's always existed it's okay anyone who
30. 1:36wants to can and in any case we can
31. 1:39never really prohibit
32. 1:41it it's the oldest profession in the
33. 1:43world so why stop it it wouldn't make
34. 1:45the street safer I'm convinced of
35. 1:48that we're in the largest prostitution
36. 1:51Zone in Europe Olka grew up here and
37. 1:55he's in his
38. 1:56element I love it and I like to talk
39. 1:59about what I've experienced here I could
40. 2:02give 5our guided tours in St P I have
41. 2:05anecdotes to tell about every
42. 2:07place oie has been involved in it all
43. 2:09since he was a young man he was a pimp
44. 2:12until the birth of his three daughters
45. 2:14now he's a tour guide taking people
46. 2:17through the district and its stories
47. 2:19indulging in explicit language and R
48. 2:23jokes back in the day 200 women used to
49. 2:25crowd into the basement of this
50. 2:27establishment every day to wait for Cent
51. 2:31200 women in a basement back then we
52. 2:34called this a freerange breeding
53. 2:37ground prostitution has always been
54. 2:40tolerated in this port city since 2002
55. 2:43it has been legal throughout Germany in
56. 2:46one sense St P showed the way
57. 2:52says in the 70s and ' 80s prostitution
58. 2:55was already tolerated
59. 2:58everywhere over time time the new
60. 3:00legislation allowed greater acceptance
61. 3:02of sex workers in
62. 3:06society they're no longer looked at a
63. 3:08scance like
64. 3:10before and in St po the girls and women
65. 3:13who engage in prostitution are even
66. 3:15highly
67. 3:16respect I don't believe we can go
68. 3:23back for over two decades the
69. 3:25authorities have considered prostitution
70. 3:27to be a business like any other in
71. 3:29German
72. 3:30Street walking brothel even the famous
73. 3:32storefront sex workers on Herbert Street
74. 3:35in Hamburg everything is perfectly legal
75. 3:37and regulated in
76. 3:40[Music]
77. 3:44detail Berlin the German capital and
78. 3:47home to a total of 85
79. 3:52brothel oh MOX is the boss in this one
80. 3:56he ran an escort service in the 1990s
81. 3:58and takes his business seriously this is
82. 4:01a registration and this is the card that
83. 4:03proves there has been a health
84. 4:05consultation anyone who wants to work
85. 4:07here must have these two documents
86. 4:09without them it's impossible to work
87. 4:11here we could face legal
88. 4:13action on this card the validity period
89. 4:17of the registration is also indicated
90. 4:19you have to go back once a year and for
91. 4:21me it will be in
92. 4:24January L her work name is getting ready
93. 4:28for the evening during the day she does
94. 4:30her regular job but comes here two or
95. 4:33three times a week to boost her
96. 4:37income about 10 women take turns here
97. 4:40day and night edod says it's just a job
98. 4:43like any other she's been selling sexual
99. 4:45services for just a few
100. 4:50months when you register with your
101. 4:52authorities you also get tax
102. 4:54identification number it's as simple as
103. 4:56that the same for Social Security
104. 5:00in short I could sell pots and it would
105. 5:02be the same procedure so far everything
106. 5:04has gone well the clients are also very
107. 5:07respectful most of them ask for
108. 5:09permission to touch me and are very
109. 5:16kind that evening she meets with a
110. 5:19regular client he pays €150 for the hour
111. 5:22and she hands over 70 of that to
112. 5:25O this establishment has eight rooms and
113. 5:29since 2017 it must follow a number of
114. 5:32new rules each room must have access to
115. 5:36daylight so basement rooms are
116. 5:38prohibited and each room must be
117. 5:40regularly
118. 5:43ventilated and very important each room
119. 5:46must be equipped with an alarm button so
120. 5:48that the girls can sound the alarm in
121. 5:50case of
122. 5:54problems OED promotes the place and the
123. 5:57women he calls his girls on the internet
124. 6:00potential clients know what they can
125. 6:02expect any time of day or night if
126. 6:05legalization has turned prostitutes into
127. 6:07sex workers it has also turned this
128. 6:09former pimp into a
129. 6:11businessman the girls pay me for every
130. 6:14hour spent in a room with a clients but
131. 6:16in return I am responsible for promoting
132. 6:19The Establishment and attracting
133. 6:24clients the big Advantage with
134. 6:26legalization is that I pay taxes and
135. 6:29work on a solid legal
136. 6:32basis so if I ever have problems with
137. 6:34the mafia for example all I have to do
138. 6:37is pick up my phone and call the police
139. 6:39and they will take care of the
140. 6:44problem Germany has about 28,000
141. 6:47registered prostitutes and about 2,000
142. 6:50businesses offering sexual services but
143. 6:53behind the official facade of
144. 6:55prostitution there are also tens of
145. 6:57thousands of women working off the books
146. 7:00like here in Berlin's
147. 7:05K it's where we meet Gard Sherborn and
148. 7:08he details the reality of the place um
149. 7:12we're here in K stza in Berlin the most
150. 7:14infamous Redlight District in Germany
151. 7:17mainly because of Christian F and her
152. 7:19book me Christian F 13 years old drug
153. 7:22addict
154. 7:23prostitutes Gart has been a social
155. 7:25worker for about 15 years his
156. 7:28Association helps women working in
157. 7:30brothel and on the
158. 7:32street a few years ago the municipality
159. 7:35installed these public toilets for dual
160. 7:37use to facilitate their work according
161. 7:40to the official
162. 7:44explanation it reeks of urine and
163. 7:49feces but it doesn't bother the clients
164. 7:52sometimes they go in with two
165. 7:55women for Gart the legalization of
166. 7:58prostitution has changed nothing quite
167. 8:00the opposite 20 years ago it coincided
168. 8:03with the opening of the European Union
169. 8:05to Eastern European countries since then
170. 8:09the sector has been in constant search
171. 8:11of fresh meat with the war in Ukraine
172. 8:14and the arrival of a million refugees in
173. 8:16Germany the number of Ukrainian
174. 8:18prostitutes has significantly
175. 8:23increased before Russia invaded Ukraine
176. 8:25only 24 Ukrainian women were officially
177. 8:28registered as PR in Berlin now there are
178. 8:31almost 180 in Berlin they now rank in
179. 8:34the top three of women working in
180. 8:36prostitution just after Germans and
181. 8:39Romanians and these women we met and who
182. 8:42are officially registered had nothing to
183. 8:44do with prostitution before they had
184. 8:46perfectly normal jobs and many of them
185. 8:48don't really realize what awaits them in
186. 8:56Germany according to a study by the
187. 8:58coalition for the abolition of
188. 9:00prostitution the life expectancy of a
189. 9:02prostitute is 40
190. 9:05years Yara barely survived under the
191. 9:09influence of a recruiter she was forced
192. 9:11into prostitution for several years she
193. 9:14worked day and night in an apartment
194. 9:15turned brothel isolated from her family
195. 9:18and friends she had to hand over all of
196. 9:21her earnings to her pimp he also forced
197. 9:23her to make appearances on television to
198. 9:26promote
199. 9:28prostitution
200. 9:32the message we conveyed was that
201. 9:34everything was consensual everything was
202. 9:37fine it's a job like any other that
203. 9:39allows you to earn a good amount of
204. 9:41money but everything was
205. 9:43fake y was sold to another pimp after a
206. 9:46few years she got hooked on drugs and
207. 9:48alcohol despite her legal and official
208. 9:51status she felt in no way
209. 9:55protected the unwritten law of the
210. 9:58underworld is that you don't talk not to
211. 10:00the police or to anyone else it was for
212. 10:03sure is that there's nothing about
213. 10:05women's self-determination in
214. 10:07prostitution it's not like I can tell a
215. 10:09client you pay me €100 and in return I
216. 10:12allow you to do this or that no the
217. 10:15client has the money and he dictates the
218. 10:17terms and since you have to hand over
219. 10:20that money to your pimp you go beyond
220. 10:22your own limits every day out of fear of
221. 10:25not making
222. 10:28it
223. 10:29according to a study by a German
224. 10:31criminology Institute 90% of women
225. 10:34working in prostitution in Germany are
226. 10:36controlled by a
227. 10:40pimp for its critics the law did not
228. 10:43emancipate the prostitutes as promised
229. 10:45but it turned Germany into the largest
230. 10:48brothel in
231. 10:49Europe we have the reputation of being
232. 10:52the Thailand of
233. 10:54Europe Ranger contributed to the first
234. 10:57comprehensive study ever conducted in
235. 10:59Germany on the law regulating
236. 11:01prostitution according to this
237. 11:03constitutional lawyer the law violates
238. 11:05the Dignity of tens of thousands of
239. 11:07women every day the worst part of all
240. 11:10this is that we have moved to an
241. 11:12industrialized system legalized
242. 11:15prostitution has blown up our value
243. 11:17system but we look away we the authors
244. 11:21of this study were convinced that policy
245. 11:23makers must act
246. 11:27urgently but throwing out the law would
247. 11:30require 1 of the members of federal
248. 11:32Parliament to vote on sending it for
249. 11:34review by the Constitutional Court
250. 11:37Social Democratic MP leny Brer has made
251. 11:40that her Mission she's launched a
252. 11:43bipartisan initiative and is doing all
253. 11:45she can to change people's
254. 11:48mindsets the women in this industry are
255. 11:51under such enormous pressure that most
256. 11:53of them don't even dare to turn to
257. 11:55associations in case of
258. 11:57problems I she's calling for the
259. 12:01introduction of the Nordic model which
260. 12:03France adopted in 2016 and which
261. 12:06penalizes people who buy sexual
262. 12:11Services there are still too many major
263. 12:13organizations in Germany repeating all
264. 12:15day long that if the Nordic model were
265. 12:17applied in Germany prostitution would be
266. 12:19pushed into the underground and it would
267. 12:21then be impossible to protect women but
268. 12:24that's nonsense because women are
269. 12:26anything but protected currently in
270. 12:27Germany with our very liberal
271. 12:30legislation on prostitution we've
272. 12:32actually built a highway for human
273. 12:38traffickers but after 20 years the
274. 12:40normalization of prostitution is widely
275. 12:42accepted only one in five German
276. 12:45supports it being considered a criminal
277. 12:47activity and its opponents are fighting
278. 12:49an industry that generates around 15
279. 12:52billion euros each year in
280. 12:54[Applause]
281. 12:57Germany
282. 13:00thank you for watching reporters do stay
283. 13:02tuned for more news coming up on France
284. 13:04[Music]
285. 13:0924