Frankfurt / Main (dpa / lhe) – Since March 18, 2020, brothels, nudist clubs and other prostitution facilities in Hesse have been closed continuously. Some other federal states had temporarily allowed openings. Advice centers warn that more and more of the women affected are in an increasingly precarious situation or are working illegally, for example on the street prostitution that has since emerged in the Frankfurt train station district.
“What we regret most is that the whole goals of the Prostitute Protection Act are now at a standstill and nothing is happening now,” said Encarni Ramirez, deputy director of the organization “Women’s Rights is Human Rights” (FIM). In the case of numerous women who now worked on the street and no longer rented a room in a Laufhaus, exploitative structures were consolidated, for example through “protectors”.
On the other hand, weaknesses of the law would also become visible if the women concerned tried to apply for unemployment benefit II. Because many of them could not prove their previous work with receipts for rent or tax prepayments. “We have advised a large number of women across Hesse who work in smaller clubs or brothels and have no evidence at all. And this, although they have worked in Germany for a very long time. There is still a lot of room for improvement,” said Ramirez. “We would have wished that the women, who got into this situation through no fault of their own, could have been granted a livelihood more easily.”
In view of the uncertain future prospects, some women were now urgently looking for work outside of prostitution. “We noticed then that on the one hand it is very problematic due to the pandemic, for example in the catering trade,” says Ramirez. Another finding is that women are very difficult to place on the job market. “We want committed employers who give women a chance.”
“Many of the women are used to self-employment, they are waiting for the day to be able to work again,” said Petra Weigand from the Tamara counseling center, which is run by the Diakonisches Werk, about the offers from job centers. “They don’t want to sit at the cash register somewhere.” Quite a few women took German courses, a large number are waiting to start again. “There are also quite young women who, after the experience of the pandemic year, no longer want this uncertainty, but doing an apprenticeship means first of all not having any money for their relatives in their countries of origin Home, “said Weigand.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210312-99-789075 / 3
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