DRAGGING themselves out of bed, the three women step outside into the freezing cold, wearing little but their pajamas and coats.
They left their small, damp common room so that their tenant could use it to serve a client.
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Switzerland is known for its liberal approach to sex and prostitution, but there is a darker side Credit: Darren Fletcher Photography – commissioned by The Sun
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Some sex workers work out of gang-run bars
That’s the reality for thousands of sex workers in Switzerland, whose pioneering legal industry – thought to be worth £2.9 billion – harbors a dangerous undercurrent of criminal gangs and human trafficking.
The Sun visited the liberal nation to explore how it has become Europe’s unlikely sex capital, with British tourists flocking to its clubs and infamous ‘saunas’ every year.
Forward-looking technology like an Uber-style booking platform and government-backed ‘sex boxes’ are among innovative measures to try to improve the safety of sex work, which has been legal here since 1942.
But despite such efforts, Switzerland continues to be ravaged by vicious gangs who smuggle vulnerable women across its borders, forcing them to sell their bodies and slashing their fees.
Elisa*, a survivor of forced prostitution who was helped by the charity Heartwings, told us: “Every night my soul died again on the streets.
“I went into rooms with these strange men, these disgusting guys who were touching my body.
“Sometimes fathers came with their sons. Some were perverted, some like animals.
“My cell phone was always within reach in case a customer became violent. Out of a hundred customers, maybe one showed a little respect. I lived in constant fear.”
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A hostess stands at the entrance to a nightclub located off the famous Langstrasse street in ZurichCredit: Reuters
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The Swiss police have few powers available to help victims of human trafficking. Credit: Reuters
Throughout Switzerland, the law on buying sex can vary from region to region. In Zurich, its largest city, there are three special zones where it can be legally obtained.
The lively Langstrasse was one of the most famous legal red light districts, but after complaints from locals it was reclassified and street prostitution in the area is now illegal.
Inside the growing sex trade in Switzerland
However, the crackdown on legal sex work has opened the way for gangs to set up illegal businesses, which include offering teenage prostitutes to men.
Driving down the main street Langstrasse, it’s hard not to notice the girls working. Despite the cold, many have exposed legs and open coats to show cleavage.
They stand in doorways, on street corners and in the windows of residential buildings, trying to lure customers. But these women do not do everything of their own free will.
Every few hundred meters, hardened pimps can be spotted keeping a close eye on their girlfriends, eyeing our car suspiciously from the side of the road.
Local charity Heartwings is one of the few organizations that proactively contacts trafficked women – often brought from Eastern Europe, South America and Africa – to help them escape their coercive lives.
Little more is done in Switzerland to combat illegal activities, and hardly any help is offered to girls who are not Swiss citizens.
Heartwings says the girls can pay anywhere from 500 Swiss francs (£455) to 1,000 Swiss francs a week to rent the filthy apartments where they are put up by the gangs. As many as ten women can share one apartment.
A 20-hour day fueled by cocaine
Jael Schwendimann, from the NGO, told The Sun: “These women get in very easily, but then they find they’re quickly out of control and it’s almost impossible for them to leave.
“Many are forced to work 20 hours a day and serve as many clients as possible, but prices can be as low as 20 Swiss francs (£18).
“That means they have to see a huge number of men a day to pay the rent before they have money for themselves to get food or send home.
Many are forced to work 20 hours a day and serve as many clients as possible, but prices can be as low as 20 Swiss francs
Jael Schwendimann
“We often see girls who are forced to take drugs like speed and cocaine to cope with the long hours and pain from working all day.
“This means that women become addicted to drugs or alcohol because of their situation, which is another cost to worry about.
“One Hungarian woman we helped, who is 50 years old, has back problems because of the hours she had to work. She was left physically broken.”
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The women arrive in debt to the gangs who sold them to SwitzerlandCredit: Supplied
The apparent exploitation of vulnerable women has led to growing opinion in Switzerland that the Nordic model should be adopted – where it is illegal to buy sex.
Olivia Frei from the Women’s Center in Zurich, one of the organizations campaigning for change, told The Sun: “These women have been brought here thousands of pounds in debt to pimps and have no way out because they and their families at home are at risk. with violence.
“We know from many of them that if they had a choice, they wouldn’t do this for work. They feel hurt.
“They were brought here involuntarily, and some of them have no idea that they are being taken to prostitution. They would all rather do something else instead of work.
A 50-year-old Hungarian woman we helped has back problems due to the hours she had to work. She was left physically broken
Jael Schwendimann
“One woman told me, ‘I’m in debt even before I start work that day. I have to pay for my room, the person who takes my reservations and the guy who works on insurance.’
“It’s a lot of pressure on girls and it affects their mental health.
“We know of one place in Zurich where four girls share a small room and each pays 200 Swiss francs (£184) every day for that room. If one girl has a client, the others have to leave.
“This means that they are exhausted, that they have no space for themselves and that they are struggling mentally. It makes it almost impossible to leave.”
Secret brothels
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Olivia Frei told how violent gangs prey on women and threaten their families at homeCredit: Darren Fletcher
One gang known to operate in Zurich is the mafia-style Nigerian ‘Black Axe’, which exploits illegal immigration laws to “bind” women into forced prostitution.
Under Swiss law, women brought illegally have very few rights, no right to health care and can be returned to their country of origin without any police support.
Jael said: “These women have no rights under the law in Switzerland.
We know from many of them that if they had a choice, they wouldn’t do this for work. They feel hurt
Olivia Frei
“That means they don’t have access to hospitals or pensions when they get old. If they go to the police, they don’t get help, they are sent back to their own countries, which puts them back among the people who trafficked them.
“We had one girl who was almost killed by her ex-boyfriend who beat her badly.
“Despite her reporting it to the police and going for treatment, when she went missing, there was nothing we could do.”
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City council opens legal drive-thru ‘sex boxes’ to make sex work saferCredit: Darren Fletcher
In recent years, violent gangs have descended on Langstrasse, using the bars and restaurants as flimsy cover for prostitution rackets.
Olivia said: “There’s a misconception that all girls get rich and it’s an easy job. You don’t have to work a lot.
“But we know that women don’t get rich. People who make money are all people who engage in prostitution, so not only pimps, but also those who manage brothels or people who rent rooms to women.
“So they make a lot of money, but women don’t make a lot.”
After some time, [my boyfriend] he told me to follow men to make money for our future together. I didn’t know it was prostitution
* Lina
If women are caught providing sex services in an area where it is prohibited, they are the ones who suffer, not the people who manage them.
Jael said: “If these women are caught by the police, they have to pay huge fines for operating in an illegal area and get no help from them.
“The city has set up Verrichtungsboxen [drive-thru sex boxes] 10 years ago because street prostitution was really open. But very few girls work there, and they have to be legal.
“All this allows the city to wash its hands and say that it has taken measures against it. But the problem is not solved.
Pimp’s paradise
Although pimping is illegal in Switzerland and punishable by up to 18 years in prison, convictions are rare.
Between 2015 and 2021, officers handed down only 71 convictions despite 630 reported cases of human trafficking.
Heartwings works in the Langstrasse area meeting the girls who are brought in.
First dates include small gifts like cosmetics, allowing charity workers to get past the pimps.
Next, prostitutes can attend the nail bar, run by Heartwings, for free, allowing the girls a chance to talk openly.
The headquarters also offers free clothing and the chance to get a job as a cleaner at a prostitution transition charity.
Emotionally ‘broken’
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Jael Schwendimann of Heartwings, a charity that pulls women out of illegal and forced prostitution Credit: HeartWings
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Heartwings provides clothing, nail services and counseling to help womenCredit: HeartWings
Lina* (22), who was tricked into prostitution by her boyfriend, used their services to escape.
She told The Sun: “My confidence was shaken and I struggled to trust people. Heartwings took what happened to me seriously and helped me get through.”
Describing the job, she said: “I had to have sex with unknown men. Men felt they could do anything with me because they paid for it.”
Lina grew up in Germany and thought she had found her fairytale ending when she met a man who drove luxury cars and took her to expensive dinners, but things quickly turned dark.
I had to have sex with unknown men. Men felt they could do anything with me because they paid for it
Lina*
“After a while, he told me to follow men to earn money for our future together. I didn’t know it was prostitution; I just wanted to be with him – she said.
“I was so happy that someone loved me. He took me to a brothel. Other women explained to me what I had to do. I did.
“After a week he came and took my money. And he beat me.”
Lina initially worked in Germany in 2020, but when Covid forced the country into lockdown, she suggested her pimp move her to Switzerland in hopes of escaping.
Fortunately, it worked. But her story is echoed by hundreds of women who are forced to brag for trade on Langstrasse, and who have little chance of escaping.
*Names have been changed to protect identities
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education