Iceland minister proposes naming prostitution buyers publicly

Iceland’s justice minister says a new bill would deter people from buying sex by publishing their names, rather than seeking prison sentences in most cases, according to mbl.is.

In a detailed post, Þorbjörg Sigríður Gunnlaugsdóttir outlined the background to and aims of the bill, which she presented this week, and described Iceland’s prostitution market. She said buying sex was made a criminal offence in 2009 to reduce demand, but cases have often been handled as fine-only offences, limiting the law’s impact. “Now Reykjavík is becoming known as a prostitution city,” she wrote.

The bill’s main change would be to require prosecutors to bring charges when police investigate a purchase of sex, instead of allowing the buyer to settle the case by paying a fine. Under current law, buying sex is punishable by a fine or up to one year in prison. In practice, a first offence has generally been dealt with by a 200,000-krona fine paid to police, without a charge or court hearing, and the buyer’s name has not been published.

Gunnlaugsdóttir said hundreds of women are advertised for prostitution in Iceland. She cited a Kveik television programme that showed buyers coming and going around the clock at accommodation in Reykjavík. In an international police operation targeting human trafficking last year, investigators identified 36 possible victims. Nearly all were women, and most were being sold for prostitution. Most were from Romania; others were from Colombia, Paraguay, Malaysia, Britain, Portugal, China, Nigeria and Ghana.

The minister said most women and girls in prostitution had been driven into it by dire circumstances. She also noted that prostitution offences are listed in the sexual offences chapter of the criminal code.