For those who want them, brothels in Greece – most of them operating unlawfully although prostitution is legal – are easy to find, even hidden away on side streets, but identifiable by white lights and the occasional free advertisement of a woman looking out the door.
While Greece’s Ombudsman said she she sees no reason why they shouldn’t be allowed in residential areas, the Environment Ministry said the brothels should stay where they are, away from where people live and is backed by the State Legal Council.
The ministry’s town planning service deemed that such areas should be protected as strictly residential. The State Legal Council reportedly shares this view.
The Ombudsman said that that the establishment of brothels in residential areas does not violate the letter of the law, noting that the imposition of restrictions leads toward the creation of illegal brothels rather than those which are licensed.
The question arose after a woman on the island of Lesvos complained to the Ombudsman after she was denied permission to open a brothel in a residential area.
That comes as the government has reintroduced a health regulation granting the police powers to detain people and force them to undertake tests for HIV and other infectious diseases.
There are an estimated 20,000 prostitutes, many of them said to be working unlawfully because they haven’t undergone health checks, and the area around Omonia Square and Metaxourgeio has a reported 315 illegal brothels are in operation and only three that are licensed.
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