Penalties eyed for highway prostitution

The Interior Ministry is studying applying administrative and criminal penalties to curb the rise of prostitution on Spanish highways.

“It is an unfortunate and degrading spectacle,” said Interior Minister Jorge Fernández-Díaz, who was in Barcelona on Tuesday.

Among the measures under consideration is fining both clients and prostitutes who conduct roadside business.

Fernández-Díaz, who spoke at a forum, said the Popular Party government has not ruled out introducing changes to the penal code that could clamp down on prostitution. In Spain, prostitution is in a legal limbo, a situation that has given rise to mafias that traffic in human beings.

In Catalonia, the regional government has amended its own penal code and now imposes fines of up to 30,000 euros on both clients and prostitutes who work the highways.