Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1285850
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 SEPTEMBER 2020 INTERVIEW It was recently revealed that a reform of prostitution laws is underway: and that it aims to (among other things) 'decrimi- nalise' the practice of selling sex for money. The Coalition you are part of has expressed serious reservations about this plan. What are you actually suggest- ing, however? Let's start from the premise that prostitution, in itself, is not illegal. It is the soliciting and loi- tering, connected to prostitution, that is illegal. What we understand, from what has been reported about the proposed reform so far, is that they are going to decriminalize soliciting and loitering: which is something we ourselves have been advocating for years. We don't want the people involved in prostitution to be criminalized for the acts they are doing. These people are victims, not criminals. However, if we are going to completely liberalise prostitu- tion – without any forethought to proper regulation – we know from beforehand, even from the experience of what happened in Spain, that this will only open up the market to further ex- ploitation. We already know the trends: prostitution and human trafficking go very much hand in hand. So unless we come up with a tangible, functional legal frame- work – including proper exit pro- grammes for the people involved – it would be the equivalent of telling pimps and traffickers: 'Go ahead. It's right there for you, on a silver platter. Just carry on do- ing what you're doing, because… as far as society is concerned, it's fine.' But while, as you said earlier, prostitution itself is not illegal… 'living off the earnings of prosti- tution' is a crime. Are you sug- gesting that the reform will also decriminalize pimping? No: living off the earnings of prostitution will most definite- ly remain illegal. But we also know – because we have worked with many women, including trans-women, involved in pros- titution – that very, very few of them work independently. More often than not, there would be a pimp involved. And even from a criminal law perspective: how many pimps have been prose- cuted? Few and far between. It is usually the victim that is prose- cuted. So now, with this reform, things are going to be made much eas- ier for pimps. They will be able to put those women out on the street, without a care in the world… without even having to worry that 'their' prostitutes might be picked up by the police, and prosecuted. And this is one of our major concerns: this reform – at least, on the basis of what we have heard so far – will end up facil- itating, or even encouraging ex- ploitation. By decriminalizing completely, and by not holding anyone accountable… we are go- ing to open up the market even more. It's a case of demand and supply: the more open and liber- al the market, the higher the de- mand. We have already seen this when it comes to human trafficking for labour exploitation. Malta's economy opened up very sud- denly… there was a massive con- struction boom… and we even heard politicians talking about the need to 'import' workers: as though we were importing cattle. In a nutshell: the demand shot up… and we couldn't keep up with the supply. The same thing is going to happen here, too. If we liberalise the prostitution market, the demand is going to increase. The supply will have to increase as well. And… who will suffer as a result? But we are talking about the demand for prostitution, which is often described as 'the oldest profession in the world'… That's a myth, though… Are you so sure? There is, after all, evidence that prostitution has been around for millennia… But are we going to look at pros- titution as a 'profession' Or is it an exploitative measure? That's what I meant by 'myth'. Prostitu- tion is exploitative. You can't call it a 'profession'. We always depart from the premise that people involved in prostitution are the most vul- nerable members of our society. People who resort to prostitution – with very, very few exceptions: the percentage is minimal – are usually in desperate situations. They will be struggling to make ends meet. I have met and talked to a number of such cases: in- cluding a transgender person who couldn't afford a sex-change operation, for example. Other in- stances involve people suffering from drug addiction. These peo- ple are, in a word, vulnerable… The Coalition on Human Trafficking and Prostitution has warned that the proposed reform of prostitution laws risk turning Malta into a 'sex tourism hub'. LARA DIMITRIJEVIC outlines the major objections to 'normalising' the sex trade Let's talk about sex trafficking… Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt