Hungary government is PIMP

wind2000 · Sep 24, 2007

BUDAPEST, Hungary - In an effort to bring prostitutes into the legal economy, officials said Monday that Hungary will allow sex workers to apply for an entrepreneur's permit - a move that could generate government revenues from an industry worth an estimated $1 billion annually.

The permits allow prostitutes to give receipts to customers and become part of the legal economy by paying taxes and making social security contributions, said Agnes Foldi, head of the Hungarian Prostitutes' Interest Protection Association.

Hungary's sex industry - including prostitution and the production of pornographic materials - has been legal since 1999 and generates an estimated C$1 billion annually, said Agnes Bakonyi, the spokeswoman of Hungary's tax authority APEH.

"It is one of the leading sectors of the shadow economy," Bakonyi said. "With this project, APEH is trying to help a group of professionals, in what is called the world's oldest profession, who have never paid taxes in their life."

Prostitutes in Hungary can work legally only within certain zones - distant from schools and churches - and must get regular medical checkups. Pimping and bordellos are banned.

Prostitution is legal in most of the EU with a few exceptions such as Ireland, where it is banned. The Netherlands has legislation comparable to Hungary's, where prostitution has a similar status to other jobs.

Foldi said about 20 prostitutes already have so far been issued permits and more than 500 had applied to attend counselling sessions organized around the country with the help of APEH on issues such as financial planning and accounting, as well as legal matters.

"Our aim is to make sex work become accepted as any other job," Foldi said. "Prostitutes come from the poorest sectors of society ... and it's very hard for them to, for example, get a loan to buy their own home."

Foldi said there are about 7,000 to 9,000 full-time prostitutes in Hungary, rising to as many as 20,000 during the summer tourist season.

One of the prostitutes who already has been granted a permit said she applied for it in an effort to improve her future and self-image.

"From now on, no one will be able to ask me where I got the money to buy my house or my car," said Rebeka, who would not give her last name. "Now we are also part of a taxpaying group and we too are making a contribution to society."

Hungary is a signatory of the 1950 United Nations convention for the suppression of human trafficking and prostitution. But officials claimed the program does not go against the spirit of the convention because even though prostitutes would now be able to get licences, the government would not keep a separate registry of them.

Critics say many prostitutes in western Europe are foreigners often lured there under false pretenses. They link prostitution to human trafficking.

Human Rights groups have said legalization and decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry does nothing to address the violence of prostitution and does not help prostitutes.
Click to expand...

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2007/09/24/4522367-ap.html

The government must be desperate to make some $$$$.

ProjectD · Sep 24, 2007

LMAo, thats pretty sweet xD to bad for the Irish though

apollon · Sep 25, 2007

you need a license to be a prostitute? wtf is on the test? how to give a decent bj?

this is so -censored stupid -- whoever says that the morality in Hungary is improving should be shot.

Knoctur_nal · Sep 25, 2007

damn..this is on par with putin dissolving his own government...

Taxloss · Sep 25, 2007

One of the prostitutes who already has been granted a permit said she applied for it in an effort to improve her future and self-image.

"From now on, no one will be able to ask me where I got the money to buy my house or my car," said Rebeka, who would not give her last name. "Now we are also part of a taxpaying group and we too are making a contribution to society."
Click to expand...

That's a good thing if they can make a contribution to the society. I believe there's some control on their businesses which is good for the women as the government can watch over them and make sure they won't get threated by creepy pimps who beat them up for nothing and or steal all their money. Only narrow minded morons -censored don't think about the positive possibilities for these women. If they know more about doing business they can change their profession (over here some of the prostitues did change profession after a while once they knew how to run their own business and started working as masseuses without having to sell their own bodies) one day but if they get stuck in a hopeles situation without any chance of a better future they're doomed yeah.

Hungary government is PIMP

wind2000 Self Schemata

ProjectD VIP yay :]

apollon Well-Known Member

Knoctur_nal |Force 10 from Navarone|

Taxloss Stripper Vicar