Lousada town council is keen to maintain an image, and is thus doubling down on its efforts to control prostitution.
During the pandemic, this northern municipality came to fine both prostitutes and their clients. There was little leeway given to any lack of social distancing.
Now, the council is resorting to using blocks of concrete to ‘bar accesses to woodland areas’.
Clearly, anyone truly intent on accessing these woodland areas (apparently popular with prostitutes) will manage to do so on foot. But as the majority of clients prefer four-wheeled access, the town hall is hoping the ruse will bring results.
According to Jornal de Notícias today, 11 sex workers were recently spied in the forest “but the council only managed to speak to seven of them”.
During this “action of proximity”, as the exercise was called, ‘technicians’ “noted that most of the women reside in Braga and the rest are from municipalities such as Felgueiras and Famalicão.
“One person from Paredes was also identified,” said mayor Nélson Oliveira.
Prostitution is not a crime in Portugal – nor is hanky-panky in forested areas. Lousada just has its own ideas of what it finds acceptable.
Source: SIC Notícias citing Jornal de Notícias
