The sex trade in Switzerland: prostitution has been documented since the Middle Ages in Switzerland, but did you know that it is legal, taxable and used by an estimated 350,000 men every year? Swiss News looks at life on the game, past and present.
| Auteur | Mirza, Faryal |
| Fonction | NEWS FEATURE |
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The Swiss Aids Federation estimates that 14,000 women work as prostitutes in Switzerland, and about 550,000 male clients use their services at least once a year. However, given the near impossibility of calculating real figures, experts contend that the actual numbers are much higher.
Prostitution is definitely not the oldest profession in Switzerland--it only received its legal stamp of approval in 1942.
What this broadly means is that today sex can be bought and sold freely, without fear of criminal penalties, in the Helvetic nation. However, it is subject to restrictions at the cantonal level, which--typically for Switzerland--will differ from area to area.
The cantons decide how and where prostitutes can ply their trade. In the city of Bern, for example, street prostitution is only permitted in certain zones. It is prohibited in residential areas or near churches, schools and hospitals.
Sex work contributes a sizeable chunk to the Swiss economy, according to the Swiss Aids Federation--total annual revenue is thought to be in the region of SFr 5.5 billion.
The majority of cantons do not require sex workers to register as such; however the reality is that some do end up on the books indirectly. This happens because they are classified as self-employed and have to fill in a tax declaration.
"These prostitutes are treated the same way as any other self-employed people by the authorities. They pay into the obligatory pension scheme, have health insurance and of course pay taxes," explains Martha Wigger, a social worker at the Xenia advisory service in Bern.
Like other self-employed people, they are not entitled to unemployment benefits.
Red light
Wigger has been working for over a decade helping sex workers in times of need.
She says it is difficult to ascertain exactly how many prostitutes are active in Bern. She estimates the number is close to 1,200, with numbers exploding around the year 2000. Prior to that, there were around 700 people on the game.
As to why there was a marked increase post-2000, Wigger suggests that the high unemployment rate was partly to blame. Between 2001 and the end of 2003, this rose sharply from under two per cent to around four per cent.
"I am sure that many women were affected by this and that some turned to prostitution during this period," Wigger says.
She adds that immigrant women were also among them, as they bore the brunt of the overall lack of jobs, arguably more than Swiss women.
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