One in two married men go to prostitutes?
Prostitution of foreign women in Greece has become so widespread that one in two married men pays for sexual services at least once a month, a member of Parliament who hosts a television show on sexual problems declared yesterday. Parliament’s Committee on Equality and Human Rights yesterday began debating legislation aimed at cracking down on the forced prostitution of women and children. In December, Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis presented a bill listing the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women among forms of organized crime, which means that all charges brought in such cases will be on a criminal level, ensuring long jail terms and heavy fines. The draft law also envisages comprehensive measures for the protection of witnesses and rehabilitation of victims. During the parliamentary committee’s discussion on the issue yesterday, PASOK MP Dr Thanos Askitis, who presents a weekly program on sexual problems, claimed that one in two Greek married men buys the services of a prostitute at least once a month. It was not clear how he arrived at such a high number. Askitis also called for more intensive police checks, declaring that the problem was widespread across Greece and also along Athens’s coastal strip. «Today the police don’t even dare to enter these clubs. With their thugs these rackets have become a state within a state.» Maria Thoma, another PASOK deputy, added: «Village coffee shops have become real bordellos. I am not exaggerating. Families in the provinces are falling apart because of the rapid increase in prostitution, mainly by foreign women.» According to figures presented in December at a conference on the illegal trafficking in women in Thessaloniki, 60 percent of the women working as prostitutes in Greece are foreign nationals, mostly illegal immigrants. Often, the victims of prostitution rings are as young as 12-15.
