Norway Bans Paying for Sex Because of Pimps from Bulgaria's Sliven - Report

Crime | January 5, 2009, Monday // 00:00

The new law in Norway targeting clients, who pay for sex, has been instituted largely because of pimps from Bulgaria's city of Sliven, the regional news website Sliveninfo reported Monday.

Starting January 1, 2009, any Norwegian citizen caught paying for prostitutes at home or abroad could face a large fine or a six-month imprisonment. The prison sentence could be up to three years in cases of child prostitution.

The Norwegian authorities have decided to tackle sex tourism and street prostitution by targeting clients rather than prostitutes.

The new Norwegian law on sex services is because of pimps from Bulgaria's Sliven, Sliveninfo reported citing a high-ranking official from the Sliven Police Directorate, who asked to remain anonymous.

According to the top cop, Bulgarian prostition bosses had been in total control of the paid sex business in the Belgian capital Brussels. The Belgium police, however, had recently taken up large-scale measures against them aided by the Bulgarian police, and many of the Bulgarian pimps had decided to relocate to Oslo.

Three of the big prostitution bosses in the city of Sliven had sent girls to Oslo in the last year, according to unnamed sources from the Sliven police. This led Norwegian policemen to visit Sliven, and to offer courses on combatting human trafficking to the local police.

Sliveninfo reports that some two-thirds of the brothels in Brussels were controled by the Sliven pimps. In Oslo, however, there were not so many of these venues, and the pimps started to send girls into the streets, which sparked an public in the Scandinavian country.

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