Swiss Sex Drive-In Opens With Slow Start
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They look like shelters for hikers in a national park, but these wooden sheds in Switzerland have a rather less innocent purpose – they provide a discreet location for men to have sex with prostitutes.
The drive-in "sex boxes" as they are being called, will be officially opened on August 26, as part of a drive by authorities in Zurich to regulate prostitution, combat pimping and improve security for sex workers.
The nine garage-style structures, located in a former industrial zone in the west of the city, have been organised with typically Swiss precision.
Drivers will have to follow a clearly marked route along which up to 40 prostitutes will be stationed.
Once they have chosen one of the women and negotiated a fee, they will drive into one of the wooden sheds, which are hung with posters advocating the use of condoms and warning of the risk of Aids.
The sex boxes are equipped with alarms which the prostitutes can activate if they feel in danger from a client.
The site is only open to drivers of cars – pedestrians and men on motorbikes are not allowed – and will operate from early evening until 5am each day.
The sex boxes are one of several measures intended to reduce the large numbers of prostitutes plying their trade in residential areas and in the city centre, including a ban on soliciting along the Sihlquai river embankment.
Men who solicit street workers outside three new approved zones, including the cluster of sex boxes, will face fines of up to 450 francs (£310).
"We want to regulate prostitution because until now it was the law of the jungle," said Michael Herzig, from Zurich's social welfare department, when the initiative was announced.
"It was the pimps who decided the prices, for instance. We are trying to reach a situation which is better for the prostitutes themselves, for their health and security and also for people who live in Zurich."
The £1.4 million project was approved by voters in Zurich last year in a referendum.
While prostitution is legal in Switzerland, sex workers have to pay a tax of five Swiss francs (£3.50) each night that they work.
Zurich authorities said the number of prostitutes working in the city had increased markedly in recent years, with many of them coming from Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary.
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Swiss Sex Drive-In Opens With Slow Start
There was a large media presence at the high-profile opening but few customers and just a handful of prostitutes.
Switzerland's first sex drive-in aimed at keeping prostitutes safe and taking the sex trade off Zurich's streets has opened for business.
The nine "sex boxes", which are hidden behind a high fence, are available for prostitutes and their clients - but on the first evening there were few customers and just a handful of sex workers.
Television cameras, photographers and journalists jostled to get through the gate, discreetly displaying the red umbrella icon that designates a regulated sex work area.
A few minutes later, a prostitute sitting in the passenger seat of a caravan arrived, covering her face.
Within the hour, the number of workers had only increased to four, all flatly refusing to have their pictures taken or talk to the media.
Just a small sign displaying opening hours and the red umbrella icon mark the site in a former industrial zone in the west of the city.
The drive-in, which has room to accommodate around 50 prostitutes, will be open every night from 7pm until 5am and is one of three spaces in the city where prostitutes can work legally.
There are clearly defined rules at the drive-in. Clients must be older than 18, one to a car, and condoms must be disposed of immediately after use in the bins provided.
There is an area where clients make a choice and the women negotiate a price before heading for the boxes, which are wooden frames that look like car ports.
Each box has an alarm bell to keep the prostitutes safe.
Michael Herzig, director of social services for sex workers in the city, said: "Prostitution is a business basically.
"We cannot prohibit it, so we want to control it in favour of the sex workers and the population because if we do not control it, organised crime is taking over, and the pimps are taking over.”
Ursula Kocher, director of Flora Dora, a support network for prostitutes, said that prostitutes were regularly taken to a nearby forest or outside the city and often found themselves in danger.
She said: "Here, they remain on-site and can deal with customers quickly."
The sex drive-in was approved by the people of Zurich in a March 2012 referendum, with 52.6% voting in favour.
And the idea has a broad consensus among political parties, with only the populist Swiss People's Party (SVP) opposing the project.
"It will not work, either because the clients will not come or because the site will not be used by prostitutes," said Sven Oliver Dogwiler, a local SVP politician.
"It puts them in a cleaner space but one that is subsidised by taxes," he added.
There are clear rules in the sex boxes, which are displayed on signs
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No microphones allowed.
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Originally posted by charlize:
No microphones allowed.
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we shd convert our carpark H into this.