西班牙是全球"妓院之都"?

According to the Independent on December 5, the Spanish economy may be dangerously close to meltdown but one area at least - prostitution - appears to be doing very nicely。

Prostitution is so popular in Spain that a UN study reports that 39 percent of all Spanish men have used a prostitute's service at least once. A Spanish Health Ministry survey in 2009 put the percentage of one-time prostitute users at 32 percent: lower than the UN figure, perhaps, but far higher than the 14 percent in liberal-minded Holland, or in UK, where the figure is reported to oscillate between 5 and 10 percent。

To meet this vast demand, an estimated 300,000 prostitutes are working in Spain - everywhere from clubs in town centers to lonely country's roadside bars。

As the clubs get larger, the clients get younger. According to studies carried out for the Spanish Association for the Social Reintegration of Female Prostitutes (Apramp)， back in 1998 the typical client was a 40-year-old married male. By 2005, however, the average age had dropped to 30 - and it appears to be getting lower。

Between January and April of this year, the authorities identified 493 cases of women sold into sexual slavery. Marta Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Madrid-based NGO Proyecto Esperanza, "Clients don't realize that many of these women could be victims of trafficking. They don't realize that all it takes is a death threat to their families back in Nigeria or Brazil, and the woman is already being coerced into prostitution."據英國《獨立報》12月5日報道，目前的西班牙經濟面臨崩潰，但這個國家至少有一樣運轉良好的行業，那就是娼妓業。

娼妓業在西班牙很受歡迎。聯合國的研究報告顯示，39%的西班牙男人承認至少去過妓院一次。2009年，西班牙衛生部的調查把這個數字降低到32%，雖然要低於聯合國數據，但這仍遠遠高出世界其他地區。在被稱爲"性自由之都"的荷蘭，14%的男人承認去過妓院；在英國，這個數字一般在5%-10%之間。

爲了滿足娼妓業的巨大需求，西班牙大約有30萬名性工作者。從城市的豪華俱樂部到鄉村的路邊酒吧，到處都有妓女的身影。

隨着俱樂部規模逐漸變大，西班牙嫖客年齡還呈現出越來越小的趨勢。"西班牙妓女協會"的調查報告顯示，1998年，西班牙嫖客大都是40歲以上的已婚男性；2005年，嫖客平均年齡已下降到30歲，而現在還有繼續低齡化的趨勢。

僅今年年初一月到四月以來，西班牙就破獲了493例婦女被迫淪爲性奴的案件。馬德里的非政府組織"Proyecto Esperanza"發言人Marta Gonzalez透露，"嫖客們根本不知道這些妓女可能是人口販賣的受害者。他們不知道，很多來自尼日利亞或巴西的妓女都是因爲人販子威脅殺死她們的家人，才淪落從事娼妓業"。