Visitors watch the wooden garage-style "sex boxes" at a construction site in Zurich, Switzerland. It officially opens for business Monday. Zurich, Switzerland kicked off its "sex box" initiative on Monday.
The city has opened a series of drive in garages in an attempt to better regulate and consolidate prostitution, and offer safer conditions to sex workers, according to Huffington Post. The boxes will be open from p. Clients will drive along a designated strip of road where prostitutes will stand in a line and negotiate prices, then they will drive to the boxes on a first come first serve basis. The modules have no doors or security cameras, but each comes equipped with a large panic button.
Each box has a poster encouraging condom use. In addition, the site will include bathrooms, lockers, cafe tables, laundry and shower facilities, social workers for counseling and increased police patrols around the area to protect the workers as they leave and enter.
The sex boxes are entirely taxpayer funded. Prostitution is legal in Switzerland, but Zurich restricts it to certain areas, and is experimenting with the drive-in facilities to relocate the activity and improve safety and sanitation.
Residents hope that the facility will help relocate a significant amount of the sex trade away from downtown Zurich, where it was becoming a safety concern because of unsanitary conditions, drugs and violence, and aggressive male clients. The site, which is also intended to help curb illegal trafficking among crime syndicates, will be heavily regulated. Zurich already requires prostitutes to be at least 18 years old and register with city and health authorities. Sex work is subject to income tax and social insurance as well.
