Welcome to liberal Switzerland , where prostitution is legal and paying for sex has become as simple as ordering an Uber. As well as street prostitution , now websites offer clients a range of sexual services, spanning all kinds of kinks and fetishes, at the click of a button. But while it sounds like a sex-positive utopia, for thousands of women plying the trade across the country the reality is much darker. Geneva, the second largest city, attracts more than two million people every year โ many of them sex tourists.
Sex workers must register with the local canton state and, while requirements vary, condoms are mandatory. But despite being legal, many find themselves in danger. He was later jailed for 17 years. Zurich-based entrepreneur Arik, 33, has created booking website Saferchoice โ aka Choice โ aimed at sex workers not in a brothel, in the hope its verification technology will keep them safer. Before, after. It gives them police protection should anything go wrong and as a result the establishment welcomes a higher class of client.
Women here are trusted to set their boundaries. I will be a billionaire one day. They put in a lot of work when it comes to their appearance, investing emotional time in a client and so on. Not everyone can do it. In Zurich, which has 5, registered sex workers, the city council attempted to tackle the problems associated with street workers more than a decade ago. Residents voted to build drive-in structures โ each large enough for one vehicle โ to provide a safe and discreet environment away from residential areas.
Run by the local government, the neon-lit wooden boxes have an alarm button that summons on-site guards in case of trouble and waste bins for condoms. But the area is covered with graffiti and has limited light, giving it a seedy atmosphere as men ogle available women from their cars. Less than a mile away, hundreds of girls stand on street corners under the watchful eye of thuggish pimps. These women have been slipped in under the radar, often thanks to extreme violence, and are driving down prices for sex.
Violent gangs have taken over the area, bringing women in from Eastern Europe , South America and Africa against their will. They arrive already in debt to their captors. The men felt they could do anything with me because they had paid for it. While pimping is illegal in Switzerland, carrying a prison sentence of 18 years, convictions are rare. Between and cops secured just 71 convictions despite cases of human trafficking reported.
