Legalising and regulating prostitution could help in the fight against human trafficking by reducing the demand for victims of sexual exploitation, according to a new European Commission study.
Across Europe, 75 per cent of all victims – and 96 per cent of those trafficked for sexual exploitation – are women and girls, the study found, highlighting the need for a gender-specific approach to the issue.
“While trafficking should be understood as a violation of fundamental rights, the fundamental rights framework must make more room for the recognition of the specificity of women’s experiences, particularly in terms of sexual exploitation and violence,” the researchers state.
Offer women access to support regardless of work
The report analysed the situation in Germany and the Netherlands, where most prostitutes are self-employed, with obligations to register their business and earnings under commercial and tax laws.
The approach in those countries, according to the report, involves close cooperation with NGOs and welfare organisations to support victims of trafficking, but also to engage with law enforcement in identifying victims, preventing trafficking and prosecuting traffickers.
In Malta, prostitution is not considered a criminal offence but soliciting, living off immoral earnings, organising prostitution or forcing anyone into prostitution is.
The report calls for the sale of sex to be decriminalised and the burden of criminal sanctions to be imposed on those who take profits from prostitution and those who purchase sex. It also recommends specific criminalisation of the purchase of sex from trafficked or coerced people.
“Law enforcement officers and border guards should be trained to abandon prejudicial attitudes and to offer women access to support services on an equal basis regardless of the specific nature and circumstances of the work they perform,” the report adds.
Proposals to legalise prostitution in Malta have been mooted from time to time, often on the basis of ensuring safety for sex workers, including by the University law students’ association and the former head of the sexual health clinic.
Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli has previously said the government was looking at different models applied abroad to see the best way to tackle the situation.
According to the latest Eurostat figures, cited in the EC report, eight individuals were victims of trafficking in Malta in 2012. Prior to that, between 2003 and 2011, only 25 people were found to be victims of human trafficking – they were all foreign nationals trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Experts, however, believe that such figures are unlikely to reflect the true situation, given the lack of formal procedure for identifying victims.
Malta was harshly criticised last year for its lack of progress on implementing a Council of Europe convention on protecting victims, after the island placed in the second-worst position after Ukraine.
The Council of Europe urged Malta to put into practice and register progress in 16 areas of the convention, including a mechanism for better identification and assistance to victims, compensation from perpetrators and the safe return of victims to the countries from which they were trafficked.