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LequteMan
Guest
Switzerland opened its first drive-in sex garages today, amid a debate over the moral and cost implications of the controversial initiative.
Sex workers will line up on a road leading to the drive-in car ports, where they will be able to negotiate fees with their customers.
Proponents of the scheme argued that it will improve hygiene and safety for prostitutes, saving them from walking the streets or being driven to surrounding forests or wasteland for sexual encounters.
But others have condemned the initiative as encouraging the sex trade, saying that it is wrong that £1.4 million of tax payers’ money was used to build the facility, which is located in an old industrial zone to the west of Zurich city centre.
Maintaining the site will cost an additional £490,000 per year.
The sex box idea was approved in a popular referendum last year, with nearly 53 per cent voting in favour, but it remains opposed by the populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP).
Clients must be over 18 and pedestrians and men on motorcycles are not allowed, because the sex must take place in a car.
The council agreed not to install video surveillance cameras, because it was thought would dissuade many customers from using the site.
The sex boxes will be open from 7pm to 5am every day.
Prostitution is legal in Switzerland and sex workers have to pay a tax of five Swiss francs (£3.50) each night that they work.
