Sex work was decriminalised in Spain in 1995, and since then the industry has boomed. In 2016 the UN estimated the country’s sex industry was worth €3.7bn (£3.1bn), and it is estimated that around 300,000 women work in the country’s brothels and red light districts.
Demand is huge. One survey conducted in 2008 found that 78 per cent of Spanish people consider prostitution an inevitability in modern society. Another survey a year later found that nearly 40 per cent of Spanish men over the age of 18 had paid for sex at least once in their life.
The charity Human Rights Watch points out that sex work is the consensual exchange of sex between adults, while human trafficking and sexual exploitation are separate issues. The problem with Sánchez’s approach is that he conflates the two.
By touting an outright ban on prostitution, Sánchez is proposing the removal of safe working conditions and legal protection for sex workers while doing nothing to target the problematic attitudes to women and sex that lead to women being trafficked, sold and exploited.