Prostitutes See Sharp Drop in Business
 

(submitted by geckogekko)
Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!

PRAGUE (Reuters) - EU entry has not brought everyone
in the Czech Republic the promised economic
advantages.

Sex workers in the border regions of the country have
seen a sharp drop in business, officials said on
Tuesday, after crossings were opened on May 1 and made
long lines of lorries a thing of the past.

"Before, drivers used to have waits of several hours,
and this naturally attracted prostitutes. But now
drivers have almost no time...hardly any stop for
prostitutes," Jan Hruza, chief of police in the border
town of Cesky Tesin, told the daily Pravo.

In the past, hundreds of sex workers could be seen
touting for business on the streets, especially in
towns on roads leading to Germany and Austria. A prime
source of business were the truck drivers who often
had to spend up to 24 hours waiting for paperwork to
be approved.

Pravo quoted a spokesman for the town of Dubi, just
inside the Czech Republic's northern border on the
route between Berlin and Prague, as saying dozens of
brothels had either gone out of business or were up
for sale.

At present, prostitutes work in a legal gray area,
making it tough for the state to control disease and
underage prostitution.

The government took a step toward legalizing
prostitution last month when the cabinet approved a
proposal to license sex workers. The next move would
be approval by parliament.

The Czech Statistical Bureau in 2002 estimated the
trade to be worth $220.2 million a year.