Dear Editor,
This is an update on the continuing problem of daylight, roadside prostitution at one of Vilamoura’s busiest road junctions. In the past, the crossroads at Morgadinhos must have been a quiet rural junction where the prostitutes might only have disturbed a couple of local farmers.
Today, however, this crossroads is an important residential access point. In addition, this route is now widely used by tour buses and golf transfers throughout the season – it is the chief short-cut from Vilamoura to the EN125.
The prostitutes operate daily until darkness falls. They shout and wave at passing cars directly opposite a private residential complex.
Periodically, a Ministry of Health van parks in the area to carry out roadside tests for several venereal diseases, aids, and so on. For 20 to 30 minutes, this mobile clinic is parked there to ‘service’ the girls, in some strange way encouraging and facilitating their trade.
And what about the police? Many of the highway police cars drive straight past the girls. Even when a police car stops, the girls simply move away temporarily and return to the same location as soon as the police car leaves.
Certainly, these girls appear to have no fear of the police. Even if the police are incapable of or disinterested in stopping the prostitution, they surely have a public duty to at least move the girls to a non-residential stretch of the road.
NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD
