SEX WORKERS IN SPAIN SUFFER

Spain’s sex workers, many of them from Latin American countries, have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, losing clients and getting thrown into the streets from night clubs, and are being subjected to stiff fines once they are caught plying their trade in the streets.

Sex workers have told the Agence France Presse (AFP) that the pandemic has zapped their livelihood, making it hard for them to pay their bills and keep kith and kin together.

"The club owners in Spain, those who could, just threw all the girls into the streets," said Evelyn Rochel, 35, the only one who agreed to give her real name, remarks bitterly. The Colombian lives in a room inside a Madrid hostess club and pays 2,100 euros ($2,300) per month for "the right to work" as a prostitute. "The management says we pay these 2,100 euros for the room, they say it's rent, but that's a lie, I'm paying for the right to work," she says.

Evelyn is a member of OTRAS, the unofficial union of Spanish sex workers established in 2018 that represents men and women in paid sex, and had sued a club owner in hope of securing a court ruling that acknowledges an employment relationship exists between sex workers and club owners. #coronavirusimpact #COVID19