Anti prostitution law “a success”

Joan Collins CALVIA and Sant Antoni de Portmany (Ibiza) will be the only two Balearic areas which will have a bye-law against street prostitution during this term of office, according to council sources, who ruled out the generalisation of the law, for now. This confirmation came two years after Calvia council passed this law. During that time 21 reoffending prostitutes have been arrested and taken to court, seven of whom were fined. “I think that time has shown that it was the right decision” said the deputy Mayor of the Citizen Security department, Bartolome Bonafe, referring to article 80 of the Order of Policing and Good Government, in force since April 2004, which bans “specifically” the use of the public highway for prostitution, classifying it as an economic activity carried out without a proper licence. Bonafe said that the law has reduced the number of prostitutes who gather in Calvia in Summer but he does not think that they have gone to other towns with less stringent laws. “We have not sent any prostitutes anywhere. Every council has the power to regulate this trade, as has happened now in Sant Antoni”, said Bonafe in response to recent comments by the councillor for Citizen Security in Palma, Alvaro Gijon, in which he warned of a rise in prostitutes working in Palma because of the Calvia law. While Calvia council are hailing the bye-law as a success, associations in defence of prostitutes' rights are concerned about a law which “criminalises and legislates against the fundamental rights” of this group, according to Cristina Garaizabal, spokesperson for Hetaira, an association created in 1995 in Madrid, made up of workers in the sex industry and volunteers from other professional fields. “The only thing that these repressive measures achieve is to make them (the prostitutes) go to more remote areas and that increases the risk of attacks”, said Garaizabal, adding that “prostitution is not a crime in Spain”. This group is calling for the creation of “special areas, like the red light districts in Amsterdam” and condemned the “double moral standards” in banning prostitution from the public highways but tolerating it in public places such as night clubs. She said that she considers these type of legal initiatives are “bordering on the illegal”. “In Barcelona, where there is a law along similar lines, the Ombudsman, Rafael Ribo, has said that it is unconstitutional”, she added. She also referred to the case of the National Agency for Data Protection questioning the fact that, in some towns, identification has been taken from street prostitutes.