MARBELLA CLUB

In a country in which prostitution is legal, the bill will allow brothels, escort agencies and prostitutes to advertise online and in classified adverts in the print media. There are estimated to be between 200,000 and 400,000 prostitutes operating in Spain, 90 per cent of whom are believed to be trafficked meaning that only a small proportion are actually local.

It’s a far cry from the early retro crime novels of Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalban whose central character, private investigator Pepe Carvalho, has a prostitute girlfriend and hangs out in a Barcelona populated by pimps, Spanish whores and racketeers.

These days, it is mostly foreign women from an assortment of countries -Nigeria, Eastern Europe and South America topping the list- who eke out a patchy living selling their bodies, often under the control of sinister pimps and gangs. Many clients are sex tourists, in the main crossing nearby borders although Spaniards also avail themselves of those touting ‘the world’s oldest profession’. In a United Nations report39 per cent of Spanish men admitted to having visited a prostitute at least once.

In the town of La Jonquera in Catalonia which borders with France, Club Paradise, one of Europe’s largest brothels, claims to have 80 to 100 women working on its premises. The women are supposedly independent operators and pay a weekly rent for use of a bedroom and board.

There have been calls for prostitution to be outlawed in Spain but many women’s groups believe that such a move would force it underground meaning that fewer trafficked women would be able to seek help. Despite various crackdowns on traffickers in the country there have been precious few convictions with only 202 suspects prosecuted in 2010 of whom 80 were convicted.

While the Spanish government might think that lifting the ban on advertising for brothels and prostitutes will bring in some much needed cash for its ailing economy, one wonders exactly how much in the light of the recent €100 billion bailout. A drop in the ocean perhaps or as one of the country’s bemused prostitutes might quip, a quick fix?