Vulnerable women want sex rooms in Copenhagen - Venstre supports the wish
Women are at great risk of being subjected to violence when they have to sell sex on the street, explains a senior researcher behind a report.
Staldgade, a street in the Brown Meatpacking District (Photo: © Torben Huss, Ritzau Scanpix) 6 minutes ago
Candy points to the spot in the Meatpacking District in Copenhagen where she was assaulted by a customer who was not satisfied.
Normally she has the strength to fight back when customers become violent, but that day she only managed to pull up her jacket to protect her head.
Afterwards, she was kicked repeatedly in the head by the man, while several people came and watched as it began to rain.
- Suddenly I just saw six or seven figures standing there. They looked mostly like men, but I'm not entirely sure, but they stood with umbrellas and just enjoyed the show while I was dragged around like a rag doll, she says in the DR podcast 'Reden: The eternal hunt for cocaine'.
The kicking only stopped when Candy's friend managed to get hold of the police in 'The Blue Bus', which is present in the area around the Meatpacking District in Vesterbro.
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100 kroner for sex
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For many vulnerable women, selling sex takes place between two cars, behind garbage containers, or in a basement shaft in the Meatpacking District, because they have nowhere else to do it, Candy says.
Here it is difficult for the women to take care of themselves, and if the security guards see them, they are chased away.
- Isn't it terrible that we have to stand here and service our customers? she asks, as she spots a woman behind a container who is "taking care of a customer," as she describes it.
Candy therefore also has a great wish to have sex rooms established, where she and the other women can sell sex safely – and where some form of emergency alarm is installed if a customer becomes violent.
>
> In the past, women supported each other with the price, but now it's all the way down
> to around 100 kroner
> Candy, user of Reden
The rooms should make it safer for the women, but it is also for the customers' sake. Many customers are also not happy about having sex on the street, Candy says, and she believes this also helps push the price of sex down.
What is the price?
- Well, I'm almost embarrassed to say it. In the past, women supported each other with the price, but now it's all the way down to around 100 kroner. Between 100 and 200 to 300 kroner. If you're lucky, you get 500 kroner.
For what?
- For sex, blowjobs.
100 kroner?
- 100 kroner, yes.
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A red van is the safest place
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Right now, the safest option for the women is a red van in the Meatpacking District, run by volunteers from 'The Red Van'.
But there is a need for a permanent location where street sex workers could come with their customers and perform their work more safely and hygienically, believes Louise Theilade Thomsen, who sits on the Copenhagen City Council for Venstre:
- When I was Employment and Integration Mayor in Copenhagen last year, I held a roundtable meeting where the establishment of sex rooms for sex workers was mentioned as a wish. We already support The Red Van, but there would be a number of advantages if it were instead a permanent location, she says.
Louise Theilade Thomsen believes that sex workers should have more rights.
In general, Louise Theilade Thomsen would like to see if legislation can be changed so that sex workers generally get more rights and more help. Among other things, she wishes for sex workers to have the opportunity to become employees, which current pimping legislation prevents.
The pimping legislation is there to protect sex workers from being sold by others. Couldn't we risk that women could be exploited if you open up for them to become employees?
- Sex workers cannot rent a room, hire a guard, organize together, or run a brothel together. The legislation stands in the way of that, and it makes the women more vulnerable.
You also want sex workers to be able to become members of an unemployment insurance fund. Do you think many of the women on the street will pay into an unemployment insurance fund when they are simultaneously struggling with massive substance abuse?
- No, that is an initiative aimed at the more resourceful sex workers who have completely chosen their job themselves and who do not work on the street. If we want them to pay taxes, we must also give them rights in the labor market, such as the right to unemployment benefits, maternity leave, and so on.
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Violence has become everyday
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Theresa Dyrvig Henriksen, a senior researcher at VIVE, is behind a report from June that shows that violence is part of everyday life for many vulnerable sex workers.
It is especially the women who also struggle with addiction to drugs or alcohol, are homeless, or have financial problems who are highly exposed to violence in the form of robberies, assaults, and rape, the report shows.
Theresa Dyrvig Henriksen supports establishing a safe place where vulnerable women can sell sex: "The minimum version could be sex cabins, but it would be best with a sex room that could be combined with a health room where staff are present," she says.
- The women go with customers even though they feel unsafe, because they have no other choice. The addiction they have makes them very vulnerable, easily exploited, and they experience many different episodes of violence in their lives. It ranges from really serious, severe violence and attempted murder. I usually say that it becomes both everyday and every day for the women, says Theresa Dyrvig Henriksen.
Therefore, Theresa Dyrvig Henriksen also supports establishing sex rooms in Copenhagen. She believes it can prevent some of the violence the women experience:
- The best we can do for them is to give them safe frameworks, like with the drug consumption rooms. It helps reduce the risk. It is much more risky to go home with someone, so the sex rooms should ensure that it happens on the seller's terms.
Read also: Particularly vulnerable sex workers are more often subjected to violence and abuse
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Administration has refused to support sex rooms
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Louise Theilade Thomsen has investigated the possibility of getting municipal support for sex rooms, but the Employment Administration in Copenhagen has refused because there is no legal basis for it, according to a written response:
- It is the police's task to prevent and intervene in crime. The municipality cannot carry out police tasks. Therefore, under the municipal authority, there is no possibility to cover costs for sex rooms with the purpose of ensuring that sex workers are not subjected to crime.
Now Louise Theilade Thomsen has instead contacted the Social Administration, because she believes it should be categorized as social work.
- It shouldn't be municipal premises with municipal employees, but an NGO that ran it. I find it hard to understand how we can support 'The Red Van' but not the other. As I see it, it is help for the socially vulnerable.
DR knows Candy's real name and identity.
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