Britain rejects prostitution 'tolerance zones'

LONDON - The British government has rejected plans to set up so-called "tolerance zones" for prostitution, saying a worldwide study had shown there was no evidence they offered greater protection for women.

Instead, ministers said they would relax laws on brothels so prostitutes could work together in the same premises.

But an international campaigning group for prostitutes said the new laws did not go far enough to prevent sex workers suffering rape and violence.

The government had been considering allowing special zones in what would have been its biggest shake-up of prostitution laws for 50 years.

"We rejected that option because if you look at the international examples where there are managed zones (of prostitution) it seems not to reduce criminality," Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart told reporters.

"It seems not to reduce the exploitation of women by usually criminally associated and dangerous men."

The British-based campaigning group International Collective of Prostitutes (ICP) had urged the government to decriminalise the world's oldest profession and former Home Secretary David Blunkett published plans in 2004 to change the law.

But the government said it had decided to focus on protecting women in the sex industry and helping them find alternative work.

It will also target the men who traffic women from abroad into the sex industry.

The Home Office said the London market was "saturated" with migrants working in brothels.

Britain's Association of Chief Police Officers welcomed the new strategy. "Managed areas are based on the principle that prostitution is allowed but no other illegal practices are," said Tim Brain, the group's spokesman on prostitution.

"If that is the case then you are forcing the women who are drug users or who are being pimped away from the managed area and further into danger."

Germany and the Netherlands have legalised some brothels and set up zones where prostitutes can work.

Around 80,000 women in Britain work as prostitutes, with more than half of those under 25, the Home Office estimates.

Under the new rules, which will apply to England and Wales, two prostitutes will be allowed to work together from the same premises and with a receptionist to increase their security.

Previous laws had only allowed one prostitute to work from an apartment.

Citing the example of New Zealand, which decriminalised prostitution in 2003, the ICP had argued a similar policy in Britain would destigmatise sex work and make prostitutes safer by keeping them off the street.

"In New Zealand women are now much more able to report violence," ICP spokeswoman Niki Adams said.

"The numbers of reports of rape and violence have increased from prostitute women because previously they were deterred by the thought they might face prosecution themselves.

"Also a lot of women have been able to get off the streets and work in premises. It is much safer to work inside rather than out."

- REUTERS