西班牙是全球"妓院之都"?

According to the Independent on December 5, the Spanish economy may be dangerously close to meltdown but one area at least - prostitution - appears to be doing very nicely。

Prostitution is so popular in Spain that a UN study reports that 39 percent of all Spanish men have used a prostitute's service at least once. A Spanish Health Ministry survey in 2009 put the percentage of one-time prostitute users at 32 percent: lower than the UN figure, perhaps, but far higher than the 14 percent in liberal-minded Holland, or in UK, where the figure is reported to oscillate between 5 and 10 percent。

To meet this vast demand, an estimated 300,000 prostitutes are working in Spain - everywhere from clubs in town centers to lonely country's roadside bars。

As the clubs get larger, the clients get younger. According to studies carried out for the Spanish Association for the Social Reintegration of Female Prostitutes (Apramp)， back in 1998 the typical client was a 40-year-old married male. By 2005, however, the average age had dropped to 30 - and it appears to be getting lower。

Between January and April of this year, the authorities identified 493 cases of women sold into sexual slavery. Marta Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Madrid-based NGO Proyecto Esperanza, "Clients don't realize that many of these women could be victims of trafficking. They don't realize that all it takes is a death threat to their families back in Nigeria or Brazil, and the woman is already being coerced into prostitution."据英国《独立报》12月5日报道，目前的西班牙经济面临崩溃，但这个国家至少有一样运转良好的行业，那就是娼妓业。

娼妓业在西班牙很受欢迎。联合国的研究报告显示，39%的西班牙男人承认至少去过妓院一次。2009年，西班牙卫生部的调查把这个数字降低到32%，虽然要低于联合国数据，但这仍远远高出世界其他地区。在被称为"性自由之都"的荷兰，14%的男人承认去过妓院；在英国，这个数字一般在5%-10%之间。

为了满足娼妓业的巨大需求，西班牙大约有30万名性工作者。从城市的豪华俱乐部到乡村的路边酒吧，到处都有妓女的身影。

随着俱乐部规模逐渐变大，西班牙嫖客年龄还呈现出越来越小的趋势。"西班牙妓女协会"的调查报告显示，1998年，西班牙嫖客大都是40岁以上的已婚男性；2005年，嫖客平均年龄已下降到30岁，而现在还有继续低龄化的趋势。

仅今年年初一月到四月以来，西班牙就破获了493例妇女被迫沦为性奴的案件。马德里的非政府组织"Proyecto Esperanza"发言人Marta Gonzalez透露，"嫖客们根本不知道这些妓女可能是人口贩卖的受害者。他们不知道，很多来自尼日利亚或巴西的妓女都是因为人贩子威胁杀死她们的家人，才沦落从事娼妓业"。