In a remarkable show of unity of view and purpose, a multi-disciplinary coalition of 38 entities, together with the Archdiocese of Malta represented by the Justice and Peace Commission and Caritas, have agreed a way forward on how the law on ‘the coercive violence’ of prostitution should be reformed.

The coalition strongly urged the government to adopt three primary pillars in restructuring the way prostitution and trafficking laws were framed. First, there was a need to shift the focus of criminal action from the sex worker to the sex buyer. Prostitutes selling sex should be decriminalised, but buying sex would in future become illegal. Secondly, it was imperative to actively support sex workers in leaving the trade. And thirdly, it was essential to provide help for them to build a life outside it. High-quality ‘exit services’ were needed for people caught up in prostitution.

In recommending these proposals to Parliamentary Secretary Julia Farrugia Portelli, the coalition underlined that these policies should be included in the government’s new legislation as a package. Decriminalising those who are prostituted without making the buying of sex a criminal offence would open up the sex industry and increase trafficking. 

Not having comprehensive ‘exit services’, such as legal, health, financial, educational and social services in place to allow sex workers to find a life outside the world of prostitution, would undermine the whole thrust of the changes needed to regulate this coercive violence in the long term.

The reality of prostitution is wholly divorced from the false argument put forward by its proponents. The majority of prostitutes are vulnerable individuals who are exploited by traffickers and pimps for sex work. As the submission document put it: “[Prostitution] is millions of psychologically unwell, physically trapped and injured women – nearly all of whom want to leave, but cannot find a way out.” It is an exploitation of other human beings reduced to objects to satisfy one’s desires. This degrading transaction is a form of abuse. 

Participating in it is often aided and abetted by other forms of criminality, such as human trafficking and slavery.  

It follows logically that those who have been treated as on the periphery of the sex industry should also be covered by the new legislation. Strip clubs should be shut down or face heavy regulation that would effectively restrict their ability to operate. ‘Gentlemen’s clubs’ (described as “establishments that sell women”) should be more stringently controlled. Policemen with the skills to monitor the industry should regularly visit the venues in order for them to be allowed to operate. As to massage parlours, it is essential that these are properly licenced to ensure the establishment is legitimate and not a front for criminal activity.      

The proposals made by the two entities of the Archdiocese of Malta, together with the 38 other bodies, should not be seen as some kind of moral crusade against sex. They are designed to establish a sensible and practical set of proposals to respond to the immorality of deep-seated social problems of prostitution and trafficking of some of the most vulnerable human beings, both Maltese and foreign, in our society. 

That their recommendations have the committed support of the Opposition, the Church, a huge number of civil society organisations and, one hopes, the government, is a cause for great hope that suitable legislation will shortly follow.