Prostitution in Malta is not illegal. But soliciting and loitering with intent is. It is also illegal to detain someone against their will for prostitution, even if they initially gave their consent. Living off the immoral earnings of prostitution, keeping a brothel, managing it and receiving profits from it are also illegal.

This is a murky area, fraught with moral, legal and social uncertainty. Very fine lines divide the legal from the downright disgusting and the exploitation of women.

In the last 20 years successive governments have tended to turn a blind eye. The so-called ‘Gentleman’s Clubs’ that started the trend still exist in parts of Paceville, but they have transmuted – and proliferated – into ‘massage parlours’.

In reality, many serve as nothing more than a form of brothels. They are located all over Malta from Sliema to Santa Venera to Birkirkara and St Paul’s Bay. Their exotic names – the Body Kiss, Faithful and The Queen – are reminiscent of the sailors’ and soldiers’ bars in Strait Street decades ago. 

Running massage parlours is a highly profitable business.

In one case brought before the courts recently, four women in massage parlours offered sex and this was paid for by between five and 12 men each on any given day – that is, up to about 70 men each a week.

All the women who pleaded guilty to working as prostitutes in three massage parlours are but the tip of the iceberg.A lack of coordinated efforts to beef up enforcement and the absence of a strong regulatory framework are fuelling concerns that the illicit activities at massage parlours are simply staying under the radar.

According to police records in the three years ending last December, only 17 ‘inspections’ of such establishments were carried out, resulting in just 15 arraignments on charges of human trafficking, sexual exploitation and breaches in employment law. These numbers are highly unlikely to reflect the true picture.

Different forms of exploitation and human trafficking are widely visible in Malta. According to Assistant Police Commissioner Dennis Theuma, speaking recently to mark World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, forms of sexual and labour exploitation are common features of the Maltese labour scene. He suggested that better regulation of massage parlours and ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ were needed.

It is clear that, as the Opposition Nationalist Party recently stated, the government’s decision to remove all types of licensing and regularisation in this ‘entertainment’ sector was misconceived. The consequences are not only rampant prostitution, human trafficking and exploitation of women under the flimsy façade of massage parlours, but also, it appears, a considerable spike in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the paucity of regulation, including medical oversight. 

The current lack of regulation allows the whole sector to operate under the radar.

There is a greater need for coordinated government action to deal with this phenomenon.

Simple licensing would introduce greater control of both the human trafficking and serious public health aspects.

The immediate reintroduction of licensing, a sustained drive for better regulation and police action to apprehend those guilty of sexual exploitation are essential first steps in tackling this growing problem.

Ultimately, this is about the exploitation of hundreds of women at the hands of criminals... at a parlour next door to you.

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