Big bordello raid in four countries over human trafficking concerns

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Police vans outside the “Paradise” bordello in Stuttgart, Germany. This was not the only big bordello they raided; there were three others. But they hadn’t come to arrest the girls and women inside; instead, they were after those who had brought them there. Here’s the story, as told by EMMA:

On Sunday evening, 900 police officers swarmed four megabordellos, “model” homes, offices and cars all over Germany, Austria, Bosnia and Romania. They arrested two women and three men, one of whom is believed to be the press spokesperson of the “wellness” bordello “Paradise”, in Stuttgart.

The raid was organized by the city authorities and state criminal prosecutor’s office of Stuttgart, Organized Crime Division. It has to do with human trafficking and pimping, as well as betrayal.

Several of the arrested persons are suspected of having forced women under the age of 21 into prostitution, using the “loverboy” method. Men get very young girls to fall in love with them, and then send them to work on the “stroll”. First they claim to be in need, then they use force. (These women are also designated “voluntary” prostitutes under the old prostitution law, because they are doing it “for love”.)

One of the 15 persons in the crosshairs of the police belonged to the biker-style gang “United Tribunes”, of Stuttgart and Bosnia. During the raid, a pistol was also confiscated.

The accused are being held responsible “for recruiting and keeping guard over the young women”, according to a police press release. “On the basis of extensive communications, there is also the suspicion that investors have been led to invest in megabordellos under false pretences. The monies thus obtained were not just used for FKK [nudist] clubs, but also private purposes.”

Such megabordellos include the “Paradise” in Stuttgart and the “Wellness Oasis for Men” in Saarbrücken, which the owner, Jürgen Rudloff, and his “business manager”, Michael Beretin, opened in July, under heavy protest by FEMEN. The megabrothel on the French border extends over 4,500 square metres, has 30 rooms, and as many as 50 prostitutes per day. Today, it is one of 123 (!) brothels in Saarbrücken, the “prostitution capital” of Germany. No wonder that SPD mayor Charlotte Britz, as well as CDU state governor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, signed on to EMMA’s 2013 appeal against prostitution.

The principle of these “sex factories” — of which the Rudloff/Beretin team runs five — is for women as well as johns to pay admission, between 60 and 79 euros. The women pay an additional 25 euros in taxes, plus 23 euros for an overnight stay (most of them have no homes of their own). That is to say, they have to serve at least three johns in order to cover their debts to the bordello’s owners. And even then, they still don’t have a cent for themselves, never mind their pimps.

Just this past summer, “press spokesman” Beretin bragged to [German tabloid] Die Welt of his five megabordellos, their “family atmosphere, spotless cleanliness, retreat rooms, security personnel, and above all: transparent co-operation with the authorities.”

Today, the authorities seem to see it differently.

The mega-raid in the German red-light milieu, which is extensively ruled by organized crime, comes at just the right time: Right now, the grand coalition in Berlin is seeking advice toward a new prostitution law. The CDU/CSU party is for it, the SPD is still unsure.

Social Democrats, who once claimed to speak up for the rights of the rightsless of this world, still hesitate to sign on for raising the working age of women in prostitution to 21, for monthly health inspections, as well as requiring registration for the hundred-thousands of foreign poverty-prostituted women in Germany. Maybe this raid will finally bring the SPD to its senses.

Translation mine.

So, as you can see, German authorities are getting mighty tired of looking the other way (and just raking in the tax revenues) while mafias and biker gangs truck in women and girls by the thousands from poverty-ridden Eastern Europe to service these cheap bordellos. Cheap, that is, for the johns; for the women, as you can see, it’s horribly expensive. When you have to service three men just to cover the brothel’s expenses, and you haven’t even made a dent in your “debt” to your traffickers (who, of course, claim to “love” you, which has got to be the ultimate betrayal), well…it’s not a life that anyone would choose voluntarily. Even the crappiest normal job is infinitely preferable to this; it might not pay much, but neither does it demand much.

In prostitution (or rather, sex capitalism), which is far from lucrative for most of the women and girls working the German bordellos (and very lucrative, by contrast, for their owners), it doesn’t pay at all…and it costs an arm and a leg. There’s a huge demand for cheap sexual servicing, fed by an anything-goes porn culture which normalizes brothel-creeping for men. So there’s a constant demand for more girls, more turnover, more fresh meat.

For how much longer will this go on? Nobody knows…yet. But it seems the writing is on the sleazy wall. And no one who truly cares for the rights of the so-called “sex workers” can afford to turn a blind eye to the misery that brought these women and girls into this unsought-for line of work.

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