The situation worsened for the first time in the second lockdown, when brothels and whorehouses had to be temporarily closed, says the head of the prostitution department of the Vienna police, Wolfgang Langer, in an interview with Ö1. At the same time, most of the tourists stayed away – Airbnb apartments were and are therefore cheap. According to Langer, women have more money left in private apartments than in a Laufhaus, for example, where they have to pay rent. He estimates that 300 to 400 sex workers are now working illegally in private homes in Vienna.
Apartment prostitution “only has disadvantages”
“Apartment prostitution actually only has disadvantages: We see with women that they are often under duress. We find pimps in the apartments in the rooms. And we keep seeing or hearing of attacks against women. There are assaults and bodily harm, ”emphasizes Langer.
In many prostitution bars in Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland there are now hardly any women to be found, says Eva van Rahden, head of the sex workers’ counseling center Sophie. Some restaurants had to close. According to her assessment, the risk for sex workers in apartments is significantly higher – for example from customers: “We now have a very specific case where violence simply happened. The woman did not dare to contact the police. Our experience is that women report it much faster if they are legally active, ”said van Rahden in the Ö1 interview.
Only a few women have an up-to-date health certificate
Sophie’s counselors cannot visit sex workers in private apartments to offer help. “I have alarm systems in a prostitution bar, and very often there are also security systems. In addition, pimps or sex workers’ friends are not allowed in such bars, ”says Langer. In addition, there is the health risk in home prostitution: “During our controls, only very few have an up-to-date health certificate. We keep getting emails from customers who have contracted diseases. “
Contacts between women and customers are established through special websites. Langer therefore calls for “a ban on advertising for prostitution with minors and, in times of lockdown, a ban on offering sex services on the Internet”. In addition, according to Langer, the penalties are sometimes too high if official prostitution bars in Vienna do not comply with hygiene regulations. This indirectly favors apartment prostitution.
In the office of the responsible Vienna City Councilor Jürgen Czernohorszky (SPÖ), on the other hand, one holds that the legal regulations in Vienna have proven themselves. The hygiene ordinance contains elementary requirements and a matter of course, but current developments are observed with great attention.
–
