Voluntary?
If one considers the origin and social situation of many women in prostitution, one must ask whether one can speak of an activity here, which is carried out voluntarily, or what the term "voluntary" means in this context. Many of the women concerned are subject to economic constraints, which are not infrequently coupled with emotional pressure due to the expectations of the family in the country of origin. The women have younger siblings or children of their own who live with relatives and for whom they want to provide a good future. Some women were lured to Germany with promises of being able to work as a domestic servant, nanny or waitress and, after the supposedly lucrative jobs turned out to be a pipe dream, have to pay off high "travel expenses". Since they have no profession and hardly any language skills, prostitution seems to be the only option to make money. Other women definitely knew that they would work as prostitutes. However, they often say that they could not have imagined how much violence they would experience and how high the psychological and health burdens would be. What all these women have in common is that they see no other way than prostitution to support their families because of a real or perceived lack of alternatives. Comprehensive exit programs are indispensable here to give the women access to alternative employment opportunities.
Emotional coercion is also created by the so-called "loverboy" method. Men gain the trust of young women and girls by promising them the great love, impressing them with expensive gifts and a self-confident appearance. Victims are often women with low self-confidence, who sometimes already had experiences of abuse or neglect in their childhood. Cunningly, the men recognize the women's psychological needs for attention, security and a loving relationship and exploit those needs for their own purposes. As "his princess," the girls are willing to do anything to keep his attention and supposed love. At a certain point, he tells her about money troubles and threats from criminal gangs to whom he owes money. Only she can help him now and she has to do it to prove her love. So she ends up in prostitution. Is that still "voluntary"?
One can certainly no longer speak of voluntary work in the case of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Here, too, trafficked persons are often lured with the prospect of good earnings opportunities and are then forced to work off high "travel debts. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) reports about 300 cases of human trafficking each year; the number of unreported cases is probably much higher. Read more about human trafficking here [LINK zu Seite über Menschenhandel - nicht übersetzt. Soll diese auch übersetzt werden?]
In connection with the discussion about voluntariness, one can also ask whether prostitution is consensual sex. In this context, consensual implies that both partners affirm and approve of the sexual act. The argument often heard is that the man has paid for the sex and the woman has thus consented, so the act is consensual. However, it can be countered that the woman would probably not have had sex with the man if he had not paid, i.e. there can be no question of active willingness or affirmation of the sexual act itself. Perhaps she only got involved because she desperately needed the money, but without any intrinsic motivation to have sex with this man. Can one really speak of "consensual" in that case?
