BBCWarning – contains descriptions of a sexual nature
“I had to work while I was nine months pregnant,” says Sophie, a sex worker in Belgium. “I was having sex with clients one week before giving birth.”
She juggles her job with being a mother of five – which is “really hard”.
When Sophie had her fifth child by Caesarean, she was told she needed bed rest for six weeks. But she says that wasn’t an option, and she went back to work immediately.
“I couldn’t afford to stop because I needed the money.”
Her life would have been much easier had she had a right to maternity leave, paid by her employer.
Under a new law in Belgium – the first of its kind in the world – this will now be the case. Sex workers will be entitled to official employment contracts, health insurance, pensions, maternity leave and sick days. Essentially, it will be treated like any other job.
“It’s an opportunity for us to exist as people,” Sophie says.
There are tens of millions of sex workers worldwide. Sex work was decriminalised in Belgium in 2022 and is legal in several countries including Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey. But establishing employment rights and contracts is a global first.
“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” says Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We need every country to be moving in that direction.”
UTSOPICritics say the trade causes trafficking, exploitation and abuse – which this law will not prevent.
“It is dangerous because it normalises a profession that is always violent at its core,” says Julia Crumière, a volunteer with Isala – an NGO that helps sex workers on the streets in Belgium.
For many sex workers, the job is a necessity, and the law could not come soon enough.
Mel was horrified when she was forced to give a client oral sex without a condom, when she knew a sexually transmitted infection (STI) was going round the brothel. But she felt she had no option.
“My choice was either to spread the disease, or make no money.”
She had become an escort when she was 23 – she needed money, and quickly started earning beyond expectations. She thought she had struck gold, but the experience with the STI brought her sharply back to earth.
Mel will now be able to refuse any client or sexual act she feels uncomfortable with – meaning she could have handled that situation differently.
“I could have pointed the finger at my madam [employer] and said: ‘You’re violating these terms and this is how you should treat me.’ I would have been legally protected.”
Belgium’s decision to change the law was the result of months of protests in 2022, prompted by the lack of state support during the Covid pandemic.
One of those at the forefront was Victoria, president of the Belgian Union of Sex Workers (UTSOPI) and previously an escort for 12 years.
For her, it was a personal fight. Victoria regards prostitution as a social service, with sex being only about 10% of what she does.
“It’s giving people attention, listening to their stories, eating cake with them, dancing to waltz music,” she explains. “Ultimately, it’s about loneliness.”
But the illegality of her job before 2022 raised significant challenges. She worked in unsafe conditions, with no choice over her clients and her agency taking a big cut of her earnings.
In fact, Victoria says she was raped by a client who had become obsessed with her.
She went to a police station, where she says the female officer was “so hard” on her.
“She told me sex workers can’t be raped. She made me feel it was my fault, because I did that job.” Victoria left the station crying.
Every sex worker we spoke to told us that at some point they had been pressured to do something against their will.
Because of that, Victoria fiercely believes this new law will improve their lives.
“If there is no law and your job is illegal, there are no protocols to help you. This law gives people the tools to make us safer.”
Pimps who control sex work will be allowed to operate legally under the new law – provided they follow strict rules. Anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime will not be allowed to employ sex workers.
“I think many businesses will have to shut down, because a lot of employers have a criminal record,” says Kris Reekmans. He and his wife Alexandra run a massage parlour on Love Street in the small town of Bekkevoort.
The massages they offer clients include “tantra” and “double pleasure”.
It is fully booked when we visit – not what we were expecting for a Monday morning. We are shown meticulously furnished rooms with massage beds, fresh towels and robes, hot tubs and a swimming pool.
Kris and his wife employ 15 sex workers, and pride themselves on treating them with respect, protecting them and paying them good salaries.
“I hope the bad employers will be shut out and the good people, who want to do this profession honestly, will stay – and the more the better,” he says.
Erin Kilbride from Human Rights Watch is of similar mind – and says, by putting restrictions on employers, the new law will significantly “cut away at the power they have over sex workers”.
But Julia Crumière says the majority of the women she helps just want help to leave the profession and get a “normal job” – not labour rights.
“It’s about not being outside in the freezing weather and having sex with strangers who pay to access your body.”
Under Belgium’s new law, each room where sexual services take place must be equipped with an alarm button that will connect a sex worker with their “reference person”.
But Julia believes there is no way to make sex work safe.
“In what other job would you need a panic button? It’s not the oldest profession in the world, it’s the oldest exploitation in the world.”
How to regulate the sex industry remains a divisive issue globally. But for Mel, bringing it out of the shadows can only help women.
“I am very proud that Belgium is so far ahead,” she says. “I have a future now.”
Some names have been changed to protect people’s safety.