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Sex work on the outskirts of the city is more dangerous than in the center. Sex boxes and alarm buttons can improve the situation.
This spring, a masked man threatened a sex worker on the street in Ibach (LU) with an ax. Other women rushed to help and luckily the incident went smoothly. Even if the incidents are not always so drastic, threats, coercion and violence are a reality in everyday working life, says a sex worker to SRF.
The woman comes from Eastern Europe and has been working on the outskirts of the city of Lucerne for several years. “You come to work and don’t know what to expect. Almost all of us have experienced difficult situations.”
Sometimes I’m scared. Especially when there aren’t many women there.
Many of the women have been working on the streets for a long time, some in Ibach for over ten years. «I have children and have to come here to earn money. If I don’t come, I don’t earn anything.”
“The location on the edge of the forest is not good”
The women are used to a lot in their everyday lives. A recurring theme is the location, lonely and remote outside the city of Lucerne. The place is good for the customers, but not so good for the women: “The location right on the edge of the forest is not so good for us. Sometimes I’m scared. Especially when there aren’t many women there. A place closer to the city would be better.”
“The more remote and isolated sex work is, the more dangerous it is,” confirms Rebecca Angelini of ProCoRe, a national network that advocates for the rights and concerns of sex workers. “Ideally, sex work happens where urban life also takes place. If street prostitution is moved to remote locations, additional safety precautions are required.” This happened in Zurich, for example.
In Lucerne, the Green Party group would like to change this situation. In the city parliament she is calling for safe working conditions for sex workers after the street prostitution was moved from the city center to the outskirts ten years ago. There is a lack of social control there.
For the responsible social director, Martin Merki (FDP), the current location is not ideal. “The place is very remote. This means that it is difficult for women to get help in difficult situations.” Despite the additional emergency button installed, the situation is less controlled than ten years ago, when the line was closer to the center.
Cameras counterproductive
In the short term, the city of Lucerne wants to make more police patrols and install a second container as a place of refuge for the women. In the medium term, the city is also looking for alternative locations. Monitoring the place with a camera is currently not an issue. Merki thinks this could deter johns from visiting the street prostitution and ensure that sex work moves more to illegal, uncontrolled places.
The street prostitution is the most visible place in the sex trade. However, it makes up a small part at around 13 percent. The majority takes place in apartments, salons or clubs. But the situation is not always better off the street: “It is a cliché that sex work is most precarious on the street,” says Angelini. Security can also be difficult in brothels. “There is often a power imbalance between the customers or salon operators and the sex workers. Dependency can arise due to a lack of language skills, financial pressure and an uncertain residence status.” The power imbalance is therefore crucial for security.