Major police raids in Stockholm have grabbed headlines in Sweden after a TV and movie star was caught buying sex. But he was not the only one arrested.
Twenty years ago, Sweden became the first country in the world to criminalize paying for sex, and now it wants to pave the way in making it illegal to pay for sex abroad, with a law proposal the government presented on Thursday.
Lone refugee boys and young men are supporting themselves by selling sex to older men on Gothenburg’s streets, according to charity Gothenburg Rescue Mission (Göteborgs Räddingsmission).
Drivers from Stockholm’s biggest taxi firm are suspected of helping fuel the sex trade despite the purchase of sex being illegal in Sweden, a TV4 report shows.
Streetwalkers have largely disappeared from the sidewalks but prostitution remains alive and well in northern Europe where laws criminalising the purchase of sex have been in place for years, illustrating the limits of legislation.
Sweden needs to step up its work to fight sex exploitation in the modern world, write Maria Ahlin and Sudeshna Chowdhury of international youth movement Freethem.
At least six teenagers who were living at a centre for vulnerable young women are reported to have sold sex, with staff doing little to intervene despite being aware of their actions.
Top Amnesty officials are being invited to Sweden to study its law which bans people from buying sex, after the human rights group voted to back the decriminalization of the sex trade.
A Swedish member of Amnesty has told The Local why she chose to join hundreds of others in quitting the organization after it voted to endorse the decriminalization of sex work.
UPDATED: One of Sweden’s largest hotel chains, Scandic, has announced additional training for staff as part of a government initiative to counter prostitution in the hospitality industry.
Swedish police have received a report that three underage boys speaking bad German tried to sell sex to women at a busy commuter hub in central Sweden.
Swedish men who pay for sex need help if they are to stop re-offending, concluded the authors of a new report that was handed to the government on Thursday.
Amnesty International's proposal to lobby for the legalization of buying and selling sex has caused an angry reaction among Swedish women's rights organizations.
Administrators at the Nordic social media site Qruiser, operated by the publishers of Swedish LGBT magazine QX, have testified to an increase in young men trying to sell sex.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said on Monday that people buying sex in Sweden should be sent to jail as the law suggests, rather than being slapped with fines.
Swedish prosecutors have charged a 49-year-old husband with rape and pimping, describing his predilection for whips, urine and gang rapes as hallmarks of a predatory "sexual sadist".
The murder of a Swedish sex worker has garnered attention across the globe, and has activist Pye Jacobsson questioning Sweden's prostitution laws and the misconceptions surrounding the line of work.
The murder of a Swedish sex workers' rights activist, who was stabbed by her ex when she went to see her children after losing custody because she "romanticized prostitution", has sex activists worldwide up in arms.
Despite Sweden's much-debated and soon 15-year-old law that bans buying sex, rather than selling it, the statute has not resulted in any convicted sex buyers spending time behind bars.
