A police station in the historic sailors’ quarter of the Belgian port of Antwerp is surrounded by sex workers’ neon-lit red-light windows.
The station in the Villa Tinto complex is a symbol of the push to make sex work safer in Belgium, which boasts some of Europe’s most liberal laws — although there are still widespread abuses and exploitation.
Since December, Belgium’s sex workers can access legal protections and labor rights, such as paid leave, like any other profession. They welcome the changes.
Photo: AFP
“I’m not a victim, I chose to work here and I like what I’m doing,” said Kiana, 32, as she showed off her workspace: a double bed bathed in a dim red light, with various types of chains and other sado-masochistic accessories.
Kiana, who did not wish to give her last name, left her native Romania at the age of 18 and first worked in Germany before arriving in Belgium. She rents one of the 51 display windows in Villa Tinto where she works five days a week.
“My mother knows what I’m doing. For the other members of my family I work in nails and tattoos,” she said.
Photo: AFP
For “Mel,” a sex worker and star on TikTok where she answers questions about her work, the law has allowed her to come out of the shadows.
“I was just tired of lying about what I do for a living, and pretending to be a hairdresser or a masseuse,” she said.
Belgium decided in 2022 to reform its laws on sex work, including relaxing rules on advertising prostitution for individuals over 18.
“We, as sex workers, were seen by the state as a real job, and the views of people also changed” thanks to the law, the Antwerp resident known as Meliciousss said.
MOVING ‘AWAY FROM SHAME’
Today, the law says an adult can advertise their own “sexual services” if they do so in a designated location, for example behind a window.
Third parties, such as bankers, Web site designers or property owners, are also no longer at risk of prosecution for involvement in the sex work industry.
But pimping is still illegal, as is child prostitution.
Described as “historic” by Belgium’s Human Rights League, the law puts Belgium in a camp of countries who want to regularize sex work, like Germany and The Netherlands, against those that don’t including France and Sweden.
“Even if the stigma still exists, in a way we have moved away from shame,” said Marianne Chargois, a sex worker and activist at Utsopi, an association defending sex workers’ rights.
There are believed to be between 9,000 and 26,000 sex workers in Belgium, according to Utsopi, with women making up 90 percent. There are no official figures.
Despite the reforms, several organizations including those combating human trafficking warn of the largely “invisible” aspect of prostitution and the fact that most women carry out the activity under financial duress.
Many are forced to engage in prostitution because of addiction or traffickers, the groups warn.
The dangers persist. Police in March dismantled a criminal network suspected of sexually exploiting some 30 Chinese women. Seven Chinese suspects were arrested.
‘FREE AND INDEPENDENT’
Many women are sent to Belgium without a residence permit to work in secret and are victims of blackmail, according to Charles-Eric Clesse, a Belgian legal expert.
“For prostitutes of African origin, in more than 90 percent of cases it is human trafficking,” he said.
The public debate has been reignited since the law entered into force in December allowing sex workers to sign employment contracts with an “approved” employer.
It offers more labor rights, like health insurance, than the more popular self-employed status.
But the reforms have not yet yielded much change.
The labor ministry has only received three applications for employment contracts, a spokesperson said. These are being reviewed by courts, which must verify the employers’ resumes and any criminal records.
In the pro-abolition camp, the Isala association called for the law to be repealed, accusing it of encouraging pimping.
It said the law would give brothel owners greater powers to force women into dangerous situations.
The law has been challenged and will be debated by the Constitutional Court.
The owner of Villa Tinto rules out any employment contracts.
“The sex workers who work here, they’re very free and independent. They work when they want. They choose their own clients. They take holiday when they want,” Karin Vander Elst said.
“If we’re going to give them a contract, it’s very difficult to maintain that or to keep everybody happy.”
May 18 to May 24 Pastor Yang Hsu’s (楊煦) congregation was shocked upon seeing the land he chose to build his orphanage. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the only way to access it was to cross a river by foot. The soil was poor due to runoff, and large rocks strewn across the plot prevented much from growing. In addition, there was no running water or electricity. But it was all Yang could afford. He and his Indigenous Atayal wife Lin Feng-ying (林鳳英) had already been caring for 24 orphans in their home, and they were in
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday delivered an address marking the first anniversary of his presidency. In the speech, Lai affirmed Taiwan’s global role in technology, trade and security. He announced economic and national security initiatives, and emphasized democratic values and cross-party cooperation. The following is the full text of his speech: Yesterday, outside of Beida Elementary School in New Taipei City’s Sanxia District (三峽), there was a major traffic accident that, sadly, claimed several lives and resulted in multiple injuries. The Executive Yuan immediately formed a task force, and last night I personally visited the victims in hospital. Central government agencies and the
Australia’s ABC last week published a piece on the recall campaign. The article emphasized the divisions in Taiwanese society and blamed the recall for worsening them. It quotes a supporter of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as saying “I’m 43 years old, born and raised here, and I’ve never seen the country this divided in my entire life.” Apparently, as an adult, she slept through the post-election violence in 2000 and 2004 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the veiled coup threats by the military when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president, the 2006 Red Shirt protests against him ginned up by
As with most of northern Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) settlements, the village of Arunothai was only given a Thai name once the Thai government began in the 1970s to assert control over the border region and initiate a decades-long process of political integration. The village’s original name, bestowed by its Yunnanese founders when they first settled the valley in the late 1960s, was a Chinese name, Dagudi (大谷地), which literally translates as “a place for threshing rice.” At that time, these village founders did not know how permanent their settlement would be. Most of Arunothai’s first generation were soldiers
RSS