Rome plans 'red light district' to regulate flourishing prostitution industry

February 09, 2015

Rome’s Mayor Ignazio Marino has thrown his support behind a plan to establish a “red-light district” as a way of regulating the city’s flourishing business in prostitution.

The plan calls for fining prostitutes who work outside a prescribed area. Within that area, public officials would monitor the sex trade, seeking to ensure the safety of prostitutes. The plan comes in response to deteriorating conditions in a neighborhood in the south of Rome, where residents say that the business of prostitution has created a “nightmare.”

Avvenire, the weekly published by the Italian bishops’ conference, decried the proposal as a disgrace, particularly in “a city that is the cradle and heart of Christian humanism.”

Prostitution is legal in Italy, with an estimated 100,000 prostitutes and over 2 million clients involved in the trade.

 

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Further information:

• Rome gives green light to red light district (AFP)