The pandemic has exposed many flaws in Sweden’s efforts to combat prostitution and human trafficking, and today the vulnerability is significant across various arenas. The police are making efforts, which are welcomed, but serious sex crimes have been unprioritized due to “most events, like concerts, being canceled,” as explained by Police Inspector Tobias Norelius in an interview in SVT. While we have seen some recent resource prioritization, there are still issues with the police not responding when hotels have called during ongoing instances of sex buying.
RealStars has previously reported that the pandemic has had a severe impact on people in prostitution and human trafficking, and that despite the restrictions, men continue to demand buying sex. Sveriges Radio has reported that sex buyers increasingly used apartment hotels during the pandemic. Following Realstars’ contact with hotels, sex trade remains a concern in some areas, and even hotel chains has offered low-cost packages to new costumer groups, with some men committing sex-purchase crimes through these transactions. Realstars welcomes the police efforts during the pandemic, which has been reported in the media, but is concerned about statements suggesting that these efforts are due to the police allocating fewer resources to football games and similar public events because of the pandemic. Prostitution and human trafficking are serious crimes and should never be deprioritised in our society or be affected by efforts as, for an example, sport events.
Sex buying at hotels is a known problem. During the pandemic, the situation has worsened in several ways: We see that men purchasing sex continue to demand access to others’ bodies and carry out paid assaults, while the vulnerability of women and children has increased. Many are economically and socially vulnerable, and we see a continuous increase in sexualisation through new digital platforms, like pornography sites and so-called digital brothels with escort services and sugar dating.
”For us who have implemented routines against prostitution and been a part of Hotels Against Trafficking for a long time, we feel like we haven’t been affected as much. But we notice that it has become a bigger problem and that more hotels have had issues with certain costumers being suspected of buying sex. This is most likely related to the fact that the prices for hotel rooms have been reduced during the pandemic.”
Annelie Bergsten, Hotelmanager of Hotel Kung Karl.
Mapping of sex-buying on hotels during the pandemic
During the spring of 2021, Realstars resumed work on the initiative Hotels Against Trafficking, and the tourism and travel industry is one of the hardest-hit sectors during the pandemic, with lower occupancy rates. We have contacted several hotels in a small survey, where many expressed the need for both management support and staff training on these issues, both now during the pandemic and as a preventive measure ahead of hiring more staff, in anticipation of reopening.
The picture Realstars received from the phone survey does not completely align with that of the police and Sveriges Radio, which suggested a shift to apartment hotels. Some hotels do indeed share the experiences of reduced occupancy and therefore a decrease in the number of suspected sex buyers, but others describe a completely different situation. Since the restrictions were extended for restaurant and club activities, hotels have noticed a new trend of larger groups booking rooms and bringing the nightclub life into the hotel room, where there have been strong suspicions of both sex buying and increased drug use amongst guests. Many hotels have expressed that they feel the number of suspected sex purchases has increased during the pandemic, and they draw the connections to the fact that Swedes are travelling abroad less. This is a perspective we share from conversations with women in the massage and Thai massage industry, who have also reported feeling more vulnerable because of the pandemic. From previous studies, we know that 80% of Swedish men’s most recent sex purchases occurred abroad, and that one fifth of these happened in connection with business trips.
During the last couple of months, we have been able to follow medias reports on the police’s increasing raids against sex-buyers. It’s good that Police Region West has been active lately and using” the Law prohibiting purchase of Sexual Services” to catch offenders. It’s needed so that buying sex goes from a low-risk crime to a high-risk crime, and to show how serious the crime is. But in conversations with some hotels, we have understood that the picture of the police presence, painted by the media, can’t be completely confirmed in the everyday life of the hotel staff. Hotel staff are urged to be observant and to call when there’s suspicion of sex buying. Even if that’s the case, including the increased resource priority, there are problems with the police not showing up when called. Amongst certain reception managers, we get the picture of that you don’t even expect the police to show up if the call is about one sex buyer, it has to be a bigger raid.
About Hotels Against Trafficking
To tackle the root of the sex trade, which is a part of the violence against women, several sectors must be involved, and the hotel and tourism industry have great potential to make a difference in the fight to reduce the demand for sex purchases.
Through the initiative Hotels Against Trafficking, since its launch in 2013, hundreds of hotels have participated in knowledge-raising efforts. These have aimed to provide tools for hotel operations to communicate zero tolerance for exploitation and to train hotel staff and management in recognizing important warning signs. Both individual hotels and larger chains have collaborated with RealStars over the years by contributing with policy development, training, checklists, and support for communicating their stance to customers.
