"What we've got on the streets is the tip of the iceberg basically," she says. She says she has seen the number of prostitutes from Africa triple in just two years, although specific numbers are difficult. Michelle Mildwater, an anti-trafficking activist with Hope Now, walks the streets of Copenhagen almost every night, hoping to reach out to victims. There are no hard numbers on how many have been trafficked but social workers believe the vast majority are "vulnerable" to trafficking. Now most are African or from eastern Europe. About half used to be Danish, according to national police.
The women walking the streets have also changed. Since then, Copenhagen's red light district has grown. There are conditions, however: pimping is illegal and only legal residents can work as prostitutes. The idea, in part, was that making it legal to sell sex would also make it easier to police. It's all in stark contrast to Copenhagen.ĭenmark decriminalized prostitution in 1999.
But Stockholm police estimate that there are only about 200 prostitutes now working in a capital city of more than 2 million people. While street prostitution has dropped dramatically, selling sex over the internet is still a thriving industry. One young woman told CNN she was promised a cleaning job in Sweden - but within hours of arriving in the country she was locked in an apartment, raped and beaten and had her passport taken away from her. Simply, there is not enough money to be made and the risk is too high.īut trafficking still exists and women still sell sex in Sweden. Police say it's working that customers don't want to risk punishment and that intelligence indicated pimps and traffickers quickly realized it was not worth bringing women into Sweden. But now I get the impression that people have stopped laughing and actually are looking seriously into what can we do." "People could not even get it into their minds that it would have any effect on trafficking. She recalls attending international meetings back in 1998 when Sweden was ridiculed for its approach. Kajsa Wahlberg, Sweden's National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking, has undertaken annual assessments on the problem since the law was enacted. But the law had an interesting knock-on effect, decreasing demand for prostitution and thereby sex trafficking. That's human rights to us."Īt first, Sweden's neighbours in Europe dismissed the idea. "We see it as a human right to have sexual integrity, physical integrity, and not to be forced to sell your body to strange men, 10 times a day. "It's the same word as a loser, or gets called by the police, or runs out of gas in his car. "They're called a "cod," a fish," says Lise Tamm, a Swedish prosecutor of organized crime. There is even a slang term for those who buy sex. So far no one arrested has served time.Īccording to the Swedish justice ministry, more than 70% in recent polls supported the law. Anyone caught buying sex faces hefty fines, an embarrassingly public police notification and possible time in prison, with a maximum four-year sentence. From a Swedish legal point of view, any woman selling sex has been forced to do so, either by circumstance or coercion. The law was enacted as part of Sweden's push for gender equality. What made this law different, however, was who would be held responsible for the crime of prostitution.
In 1995, Sweden passed a tough bill that cracked down on prostitution.
That stark difference may explain why Sweden is being hailed as a model of how to combat sex trafficking, while Denmark has been called the "Brothel of Scandinavia." Now, you can find only three or four women who work the street. In its heyday, dozens of girls used to ply their trade here. Malmskillnadsgatan is a commercial area, the address of several banks. Inside one particularly loud bar, young Thai women sit on the laps of male customers.Īnd Stockholm? Well, you might walk right by its equivalent and never notice. Women stand on nearly every corner - many from Africa - aggressively making their pitch to men walking by. Copenhagen's red light district pulsates with neon lights.