The reasons are self-explanatory: the city has , residents and a population of over 1, call girls. The numbers grew after when Bulgaria and Romania gained EU membership. Since then there has been a steady influx of women plying the sex trade, often to escape poverty at home.
It will employ 90 full-time prostitutes and be run by a permanent staff of The establishment has been described as one of the largest brothels in Europe. While exploiting prostitutes remained criminal, employing them or providing sex workers with a place to ply their trade was declared legal.
The change in the law was an attempt to encourage responsible, law-abiding brothel owners, who, it was assumed, would eventually drive pimps from the market and end the exploitation of sex workers.
In France, prostitution is illegal in principle, but it is not illegal to be a prostitute. The country has become a magnet for sex tourism, with an estimated , prostitutes catering for a million men each day.
Statistics suggest that the aim to make prostitution a job like any other has backfired badly. Just 44 prostitutes are reported to have registered for welfare benefits so far and critics say that well-meaning legislation has helped, rather than discouraged, pimps. Most health-insurance companies refuse to accept prostitutes as customers at reasonable rates because of what they say are the inherent risks involved. Taxes on brothels are usually passed on to the call girls who work in them, while uncontrolled street prostitution involving new arrivals from Eastern Europe continues to thrive.
