Due to the restrictions imposed in order to minimise the Corona virus patients, sex work was banned for quite a while and lots of sex workers were left with no income. Some of the sex workers felt obliged by the situation to start working illegally in hotel rooms or private apartments.
The sex work industry is still struggling to get back on track with the normal rhythm and the fact that many of the formal employees didn’t come back to work doesn’t make the situation easy for legal brothels. Due to the lockdown, they chose to work illegally in hotels, apartments and even on the street and some of them chose to keep working like that even after the reopening of the legal brothels. Others chose to leave abroad in the hope of finding other countries with other regulations for their industry.
Hedwig Christ, a representative of the Nuremberg-based Cassandra counseling center, declared in an interview with the Rheinpfalz newspaper that he is concerned about the consequences that will follow due to the growth of illegal prostitution.
Statistically speaking, when working as a sex worker outside of a legal brothel, the risk of illnesses and violance increases significantly. Other statistics also show that there is also an alarming rise in human trafficking and forced prostitution.
It is highly recommended for the women that chose to work in the sex industry to work in legal brothels, where they can be safe and protected by any threat that can occur.
Indirect victims of the measures imposed during the lockdown
In Hanover, a woman was found by a neighbour, tied up and with no signs of life. The autopsy showed that the woman died as a result of external injuries.
It is said that the woman was running an illegal brothel on the grounds of an apartment. It is suspected that the murderer might be a customer of the brothel.
The authorities are trying to create awareness on the subject of violence that occures when illegal prostitution is involved and they are asking the sex workers to only start working in legal brothels, were security is provided at any time and in any situation.