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There are 3,000 prostitutes in the Canary Islands and researchers issue a warning over the normalisation of the activity

Girls

Some 3,000 women work as prostitutes in the Canary Islands, most of them Latin American and Spanish, according to an estimate in the first report on this activity prepared by the University of La Laguna on behalf of the Government of the Canary Islands. The professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Esther Torrado, who presented the report before the commission of the Parliament of the Canary Islands last Tuesday, has said that women and girls at risk of social vulnerability are those who are more likely to be captured for the trade, a phenomenon whose presence on the street is already infamous, due to the "diversification" of the offer with clubs, flats or through the internet. The study lasted two years and had almost 1,700 surveys carried out and the collaboration of professionals.

The usual profile of prostitutes in the archipelago is a woman in a precarious economic situation with children and relatives under her care, with little academic training and who, in the case of foreigners, must send money remittances to their country. Almost all are victims of gender violence and many have suffered sexual, physical or emotional abuse during their childhood.

Torrado points out that prostitution has mutated and bears little resemblance to what was practiced in the 70s and 80s, as international networks predominate controlling the second most economic business in the world through the "commodification" of a woman's body.

The study describes the high mobility of the activity in the islands given that clients demand variety and low prices, so 'mafias' change the offer frequently, highlighting also a high demand for services in the islands of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, resolved with 'shipments' from Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Clients of prostitution have a very varied profile in social and age, and in general, justify prostitution as a "necessary service", hence the activity is trivialized and minimized, because there is no empathy as prostitution has become a commodified leisure activity, just like going to buy jeans or shoes.

Pornography, the prelude to consumption

The ULL warns that young people's early exposure to pornography, through the internet and mobile devices, is a prelude to the consumption of prostitution. From there they go on to prostitution to represent their pornographic fantasies. 

Torrado has also warned that in young people there has been no affective-sexual education and that they have taken up technology so strongly, which has caught parents and educators off guard. According to the study, prostitutes distrust the administrations, because they fear that they will take custody of their children and thus prefer to to turn to charities for support.

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