World P4P News

The French authorities have reported that there have been 249 victims of France's new law criminalising the purchase of sex. The law has been in force for 6 months.

No doubt a good proportion of this tally have had their lives trashed, just so that a few French feminists can enjoy feeing smug about their 'equality'.

While the maximum fine is € 1,500 or euro € 3,500 for repeat offenders, most of the 250 who admitted to paying for sex were fined between € 300 and € 400.

Some 50 of the 250 fines handed out since April have been to clients in Narbonne, apparently all due to the fact the local prosecutor has taken a keen interest in applying the law from day one. The local police chief explained that officers will normally pounce once the client has stopped by the roadside, made contact with the prostitute, and after she has climbed into the vehicle.

Most of those fined in Narbonne were over 50 years old and all quickly owned up, so as to avoid having letters sent to the family addresses.

Fines have also been dished out in the Bois de Vincennes near Paris and the Forest of Fontainebleau.

Germany has approved a new law that makes it illegal to have sex with prostitutes without using a condom.

According to a report in the Independent, brothel owners will now be expected to make their customers aware of the new law and inform them that unprotected sex will be banned.

The law has been approved by Bundesrat, Germany's upper house of Parliament. It will now be sent to President Joachim Gauck for his approval. The law will come into force on July 1, 2017,

The new law will also make licensing mandatory for all brothels so that they would comply with all rules and meet legal standards.

Sex wrkers will also be expected to register with the local police who will issue certificates that would require a renewal every two years. The sex workers will also be required to attend a health advice session once in a year.

Those violating the law, including sex workers, pimps, buyers or brothel owners, could face fines from € 1,000 to € 50,000. Brothel owners could also be stripped off their license.

Ireland's 'Justice' Minister Frances Fitzgerald says she will not decriminalise brothel-keeping as part of new prostitution laws as she fears criminals would 'exploit a legal loophole', which is obviously more important to her than keeping the women safe.

A section of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2015, which has still not been signed into law, criminalises the purchase of sex but decriminalises the person offering sexual services.

The minister was asked by Green Party TD Catherine Martin for her views on the way sex workers will be decriminalised while still retaining sanctions for a person working together with another for safety .

Fitzgerald confirmed it is a provision of the law that it is an offence to keep or manage a brothe and tried to explain why this is more important than women's safety:

While I understand that this provision can prevent persons offering sexual services from working together with others, I am particularly concerned that any decriminalisation of brothel-keeping would create a legal loophole ripe for exploitation by the organised crime gangs involved in the trafficking and exploitation of women in prostitution.

Women would come under pressure to claim they were working independently when that is not the case and the Gardai­ would be limited in the actions they could take to close brothels and disrupt the activities of criminal gangs. For this reason I have no plans to amend provisions relating to brothel- keeping at this time.

Martin also asked Fitzgerald about the Government's decision to criminalise solicitation under the Public Order Act. The minister tried to explain that although women were supposedly being decriminalised for prostitution they would actually still be subject to prosecution under public orders laws:

People who solicit the sexual services of others, that is the buyers and pimps, remain subject to prosecution for the solicitation and loitering offences under the 1993 Act. This did, however, give rise to concerns that the Gardai­ would be left with no means of combating any public nuisance if sexual services were to be offered, for example, in a residential area. There was also concern the provision could be exploited by criminal gangs.

Failing to comply with [police] direction can give rise to an offence. Loitering for the purpose of offering sexual services has now been added to the behaviours covered by Section 8. The effect of the proposed amendments will be that on-street prostitution will not be an offence, but the gardaí will still have the power to move persons offering sexual services on from a public place, when necessary.

Update: MP John Halligan argues for decriminalisation

4th August 2016. See  article from laois-nationalist.ie

Independent Irish MP John Halligan says prostitution should be legalised. The Waterford TD says Garda funding and resources would be better spent on preventing human trafficking. Deputy Halligan says regulating prostitution would help to prevent the exploitation of sex workers:

You're not going to stop prostitution, you're never going to stop it. Why could it not be regulated? The Government and the Gardai? should consider doing that,

We should be trying to find a solution that would take prostitution out of the hands of the pimps, and also, if we have money available, rather than taking up the GardaÃ?'s time trying to find the people who avail of prostitution we should be trying to deal with the pimps and deal with the women that are being exploited and forced into prostitution.

Offsite Comment: Making prostitution legal simply means allowing adults to spend their time and money as they see fit

9th August 2016. See  article from independent.ie

Thailand has promised to eradicate its sex industry as it attempts to somehow reinvent itself as a female-friendly travel destination.

Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, the country's first female tourism minister, made the pledge following a series of police raids on Thai massage parlours offering sexy services. She spouted to Reuters:

We want Thailand to be about quality tourism. We want the sex industry gone. Tourists don't come to Thailand for such a thing. They come here for our beautiful culture.

Kobkarn began her drive to clean up Thai tourism's image soon after arriving in office in 2014, singling out the resort city of Pattaya as a pilot project for the country at large. Pattaya has more than 1,000 bars and massage parlours, many of which offer sexy services.

In an attempt to diversify the tourism industry, Thailand is starting a month for women travellers campaign in August, in which female-only pink immigration lanes and parking zones will be set up in international airports.

A bill seeking to introduce fines of up to ? € 10,000 for anybody who pays for sex was presented in Italy's parliament on Wednesday.

Although organized prostitution and brothels are illegal, street prostitution is allowed and estimates suggest there are 120,000 prostitutes currently working in Italy.

The new laws aim to impose feminist morality by going after sex worker's customers and hitting victims caught paying for sex with fines of between ? € ?2,500 and ?? € 10,000.

Under the new rules, repeat offenders would face fresh fines and risk being sentenced to up to a year in prison.