JUSTICE Minister Doros Theodorou yesterday stood by his claim that many women brought to Cyprus as artistes voluntarily engaged in prostitution, basing his comments on police data, and were not forced into it by cabaret owners, as reported by the Ombudswoman.
The minister described the law on prostitution as hypocritical and called for radical changes in the sex industry in Cyprus.
Referring to his claim last week that a survey conducted in Eastern European countries revealed that “the dream of 45 per cent of the women is to become prostitutes,” Theodorou backed his claim, saying he picked up the statistics while in Berlin as a House deputy two years ago.
“The survey does exist. It shows the poor conditions that exist in certain countries, pushing women to take up prostitution. I brought it up to show that the EU should take a look elsewhere and not at the countries where prostitution exists but at the countries where it starts from,” he said, adding, “hypocrisy has to end at some point”.
Theodorou said the ombudswoman’s conclusion that the majority of women were blackmailed and forced to provide sexual services simply didn’t stand.
“We have our information from the police. Police monitor the situation as much as they can within the framework of a hypocritical law which forbids prostitution, although we all know it happens in the cabarets and bars. They are supposedly controlling the situation within this framework.”
The minister said the authorities were doing all they could to better the position of these women. “We now make special visits to the houses to see the conditions they live in, despite the law not permitting this. And the girls accept them in.”
Theodorou also pointed to the unacceptable situation where an artiste’s employer had the right to accompany her everywhere or enquire where she was going during her free time.
“We changed this and said their free time is their free time. They can go where they want and do what you want and don’t have to answer to anyone on that.”
In the cases where certain women want to leave their employment or break contract, the police help them, but this is only in a few cases, claimed Theodorou.
“We also ask them to give a statement against their employer, something we haven’t managed to do yet.”
New measures to fight abuse of foreign women in the sex trade here are now under way, said the minister. “I agreed with my Bulgarian counterpart to find out how many women were coerced into sex. Those afraid to talk here will feel less frightened to talk once they go back to Bulgaria. We are doing what we can. Next month, I will go to Ukraine to do the same.”
Regarding the future of the sleaze industry, Theodorou was adamant something had to be done to change the double standards that currently exist.
“The number of cabarets existing now will not do so in the future and they will not be of this nature. There will be radical changes. Everything will change. We will have to take decisions,” he said referring to the law.
“Now we know it is illegal but everyone knows it happens. This cant stand any more.”
The matter is set to be discussed in a ministerial committee and with the ombudswoman this Monday.
