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Skimpy clothes distract Italian drivers

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-18 11:22

Rome -- Mayor Gianni Alemanno announced a crackdown on the "unseemly and indecent clothing" worn by the throngs of sex workers who line busy roads on the outskirts of the city, selling themselves for as little as ￡25.

The sight of sex workers, many of them from Romania, in various states of undress, was a "cause of distraction" for male drivers, a decree from the mayor's office said.

Prostitutes wait for customers at Flaminio road in Rome. [Agencies]

"The business of prostitution produces serious disruption to road safety, due to the gravely imprudent behaviour, in violation of road safety rules, of those looking for sexual services," the decree added.

But a police union criticised the new rule, saying it was impossible to define exactly what constituted unseemly clothing.

"Who will specify how short a skirt must be to establish unequivocally that there is an intention to solicit?" a spokesman told the newspaper La Repubblica.

Sex worker groups also said the decree was unworkable and pledged to mount a legal challenge against it.

The row came as police in Rome issued their first spot fines to prostitutes and their clients as part of a campaign against street prostitution.

Three men and 17 sex workers were each issued 200 euros fines by municipal police after the order came into force on Tuesday.

The first client to be fined, a 23-year-old Italian mechanic named Franco, who was about to pay for the services of a Brazilian trans-sexual, was indignant, saying he was unaware of the new law.

"I'll never again vote for Alemanno," he said, referring to Mr Alemanno's election as mayor earlier this year.

Prostitutes told police they had no intention of paying the fines, calling the new decree "an absurdity".

The mayor said his order would be valid until January, when the Italian parliament is expected to adopt a new package of nationwide anti-prostitution laws proposed last week by the government of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Mr Berlusconi's government, which has made law and order a priority since coming to power in May, plans to outlaw prostitution in public places, with prison terms of up to 15 days and fines of 200 to 13,000 euros for prostitutes and their clients.

Pimps responsible for under-aged prostitutes would face six to 12 years in prison and fines of between 15,000 and 150,000 euros.

Clients of under-aged sex workers could be sent to jail for between six months and four years with possible fines of up to 6,000 euros.

An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 women are engaged in prostitution in Italy. A third of them are foreigners, largely from Eastern European countries but also Russia and West Africa.

Around 25,000, known colloquially as "lucciole" or "fireflies", work out in the open, soliciting on main roads and in truck stops across the country.

Brothels and red light districts have been banned in Italy since 1959, although prostitution itself is not a crime.