Drive-in 'sex boxes' to clean up Zurich prostitution scene

No car, no sex — that’s the rule for an experiment Zurich has launched to make prostitution safer for women and less of a public nuisance.

Teak-coloured open wooden garages, dubbed “sex boxes” by the Swiss media, are now open for business for drive-in customers in the Altstetten area of Switzerland’s largest city.

The several dozen sex workers who are expected to make it their new hub will stand along a short road in a small, circular park to negotiate with clients.

The park was built in a former industrial area nestled between a rail yard and the fence along a major highway. The publicly-funded facility — open all night and located away from the city centre — includes bathrooms, lockers, small cafe tables, a laundry and shower. There are no video surveillance cameras, but the sex workers — who will need a permit and pay a small tax — will be provided with a panic button, and on-site social workers.

Daniel Hartmann, a Zurich lawyer, said the move would mean more safety for the prostitutes, adding: “They do a great job, and they have better working conditions... They’re not exposed to the bosses, to the pimps.”

Over the weekend, several hundred residents visited the only “open house” Zurich will offer to give the public a better idea of how their taxes are used. Most visitors said they were curious and had not really come to terms with the idea, but hoped it would improve safety.

Voters in Zurich last year approved spending up to 2.4m Swiss francs (€1.95m) on the project. The city will spend 700,000 francs (€570,000) annually to run the sex boxes. Prostitution has been legal in Switzerland since 1942.