About 95% of the prostitutes in Spain are foreigners, some of them Romanians. About 25% of the women the police released from criminal organizations in the last 2 years come from Romania. Rocio Nieto, a member of the Association to Counter and Reintegrate Women Prostitutes, comments: "They are women invisible to society. Most of them come after being lured. Those who come and are aware of what they come for can't image the half-slavery they will live in."
Prostitution is real business in Europe, fueling about 18,000 million Euro every year to some Romanian, Nigerian, Russian and South American networks who fetch young women from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador. Such criminal organizations are in control of brothels where some 10-30 women work.
According to Mediafax Agency, in 2007 the police annihilated 103 such networks and arrested 483 pimps, 70% of them of foreign origin. The exact number of prostitutes in Spain is difficult to mention, but police sources estimate it reaches some 300,000 or even 400, 000. (...) (B.G.)