New Delhi: In 2002, an Act was passed by the Social Democrat Green coalition government in Germany to legalize prostitution in order to raise the social status of sex workers in society.Since then, the sex industry in Germany has boomed immensely. With almost 400,000 sex workers being paid by a million men everyday, Germany has become a world capital for sex trade.The idea behind enacting the legislation was giving rights to sex workers to remove the stigma of sex work, but somehow it did not work.This has led to more exploitation of women in Germany. The minimum estimate of sex trafficking victims in the country increased from 9,870 in 2001 to 11,080 in 2002, to 12,350 in 2003. The link between human trafficking and liberalization of prostitution laws is controversial.A study by two economists from London School of Economics published in World Development Report, 2013, said that legalizing prostitution may increase women trafficking.Reports of human trafficking from 150 countries all over the world were combined and the above conclusion was drawn. In Germany, Berlin alone has some 500 brothels; Osnabrück, a small university city, has 70; and another 3,000 or so exist across the rest of the country.Germany also houses one of the largest brothels of Europe located on the outskirts of town, the Pascha. The brothel is situated in Cologne city of Germany.It was Europe's first high rise brothel with over 126 rooms on 7 floors. It has facilities like restaurant, beauty salon, boutique, tanning studio, and several bistros. A table dance night club, special floor reserved for transsexual prostitutes is also an added attraction for tourists. Another red light place of Germany is the FKK, which houses pools, an erotic cinema, a sports bar, and a sauna for the customers. The Bernds Sauna Club which is also called the ‘mother of all clubs' located at Schieferhof is also very much popular. Even though the laws are liberalized, Germany continues to be a victim of human trafficking. In 2007, Germany was listed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as a top destination for victims of human trafficking. Basically, the law was enacted to remove the role of pimps and forceful prostitution, but that did not materialize. The law has only led to cheaper sex than raising the status of sex workers. One suggestion to the ongoing problem is to focus on the health aspects and raising the age for commercial sex from 18 to 21 years, and making sex with a trafficked person as punishable by law.
