The federal police force said in a statement that a record 1, officers swooped on more than 60 brothels and flats in 12 of Germany's 16 states. Authorities say a "core group" of 17 suspects "smuggled Thai women and transsexuals into Germany with fraudulent" visas for the passport-free Schengen zone.
Seven of the accused, including a year-old Thai woman and her year-old German partner, were taken into custody on outstanding arrest warrants. Beyond human trafficking, forced prostitution, procurement and embezzlement of wages, the ringleaders also face charges of tax evasion, a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutor's office, Alexander Badle, told reporters. Prosecutors in Frankfurt, who have been working with police on the case since February , estimate that the ring drew more than one million euros in income.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer praised the operation as an "unprecedented strike against a national organised crime network". Badle said the ring had "specialised" in a niche for transsexual prostitutes in Germany's vast sex industry. He said that while the Thai victims were aware that they were being taken to German brothels, they were duped about the "conditions, including the fact that they would receive virtually no remuneration".
They were brought to Europe on tourist visas that explicitly prohibited work, and spoke no German, leaving them particularly vulnerable to exploitation, Badle added. He said immigration authorities would now examine the victims' legal status to determine how long they could stay in Germany. Prostitution is legal in Germany but heavily regulated and taxed.
However a law intended to improve the legal footing for sex workers has failed to stamp out mass-scale trafficking. Thailand has a famously permissive attitude toward the so-called third sex people or "ladyboys", but its laws still refuse to recognise their sexual identity, rooting discrimination in the bureaucracy.
