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Under a new law in Belgium - the first of its kind in the world. Sex workers will be entitled to official employment contracts, health insurance, pensions, maternity leave and sick days. Essentially, it will be treated like any other.
There are tens of millions of sex workers worldwide. Sex work was decriminalised in Belgium in 2022 and is legal in several countries including Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey. But establishing employment rights and contracts is a global first.
“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” says Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We need every country to be moving in that direction.” Critics say the trade causes trafficking, exploitation and abuse – which this law will not prevent.
“It is dangerous because it normalises a profession that is always violent at its core,” says Julia Crumière, a volunteer with Isala – an NGO that helps sex workers on the streets in Belgium.
For many sex workers, the job is a necessity, and the law could not come soon enough.
source: BBC news
