By Dalila M Olmo López
“When there’s a raid, they don’t ask who’s being exploited, they ask who has papers,” said Sol Angel Navas, an Ecuadorian migrant and trans woman working in Spain’s sex industry. As co-founder of the Feminist Sex Worker Association (AFEMTRAS), Navas has witnessed first-hand how police operations disproportionately target migrant women, turning anti-trafficking efforts into mechanisms of immigration control.
Spanish or EU nationals are often released after identification, while non-European women, particularly those from Latin America or sub-Saharan Africa, face detention, deportation orders, or intimidation, Navas explained. What is officially presented as protection against trafficking, she warned, “criminalizes poverty and migration, not exploitation.”
Hidden lives and unseen labor in Spain’s sex industry
No regulation, no papers, no rights. Such are the conditions facing many migrant women who work in prostitution in Spain, said Rocío Olivet, an Argentinian former employee at two of Madrid’s downtown brothels. Olivet, 38, described her role in the establishments as “a phone operator, a security guard, a cleaner, but above all, an emotional support and social worker for the girls.” Most workers were migrants from Latin America or Eastern Europe—only two were Spanish nationals. Conditions varied by venue: at Atocha, women needed papers because the location was public; at Chamartín, undocumented women worked under less scrutiny, but in more precarious, hidden conditions.
Living and working conditions were harsh. Some women worked eight-hour shifts, others lived on-site, sharing double or bunk beds in unventilated rooms. “If an inspection was coming, we had to hide all the suitcases in a truck to pretend no one lived there. There was no official security staff, and if a client became violent, the girls were often left to deal with it alone,” Olivet recalled.
She emphasized that migrant women’s vulnerability is compounded by Spain’s lack of regulation. “Spanish women have a network to fall back on: family, school, or something. Migrant girls have nothing. They’re alone, most undocumented, without options, and the business owners take advantage of that. They treat them as disposable.”
“Spanish women have a network to fall back on. Migrant girls have nothing. Business owners take advantage of that. They treat them as disposable.”
Legal grey zones and lack of protection
Although not illegal, the activity is under constant scrutiny. “Everything surrounding sex work is hyper-monitored, both by laws and by state security forces,” Olivet added. This grey legal status leaves sex workers without formal protection. They are exposed to abuse from employers or clients while being excluded from labor and social rights, stated Estefanía Acien, an investigator and social anthropology professor in the University of Almería.
The situation is particularly severe for migrants, especially those without residence permits. Acien emphasized that undocumented workers face higher exposure to police raids, deportation orders, and abuses under anti-trafficking frameworks.
“If they say they’re not trafficking victims, they’re treated as criminals… they can end up deported,” Acien said. Official data on trafficking and exploitation, she noted, often misrepresents reality due to abolitionist bias and the hyper-surveillance of foreign women.
Navas’s testimony confirms this experience: many women who were counted as “rescued victims” were almost never trafficked; they were working independently, yet their migrant status automatically labels them as exploited. “It makes it look like the government is saving us,” Navas said, “when in reality, it makes our lives more dangerous and our work more invisible.”
These individual experiences unfold within a complex legal and political landscape, where laws, enforcement, and public debates shape the daily realities of migrant sex workers.
In Spain, migrant women make up the majority of those most affected by sexual trafficking and exploitation.
Politics, policy, and the lives of migrant workers
In Spain, migrant women make up the majority of those most affected by sexual trafficking and exploitation, according to official government figures from 2024. Yet there is no comprehensive and continuous collection of statistics on sex workers at a government scale, reflecting the sector’s invisibility due to the lack of legislation and accountability.
A study published by the Ministry of Equality in Spain revealed that among 114,576 women identified in prostitution, 51% were from Latin America, 16% from Europe, and 29% had their nationality unspecified. Beyond this study, the government relies mainly on registered figures of trafficking and exploitation, not a full labor‑registry of sex work. This absence of data complicates policymaking and enforcement, stated Carmen Meneses, an anthropologist and professor at Comillas Pontifical University.
In Spain, prostitution is not illegal but is not recognized as formal work, leaving sex workers vulnerable. Article 187 of the Penal Code punishes anyone who “for profit, promotes, favors, or facilitates the prostitution of another person, even with their consent.” In addition, Article 11 of the “Only Yes Means Yes” law criminalizes advertising that promotes prostitution. Together, these rules make it difficult for independent sex workers to reach clients safely, forcing many to rely on establishments or intermediaries and pushing the activity further underground, insisted Meneses.
Political shifts toward abolition
Meanwhile, the political context is shifting. In recent months, the government revived the long-standing debate over prostitution following the Ábalos-Koldo case, when leaked recordings of former officials of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) discussing visits to women in prostitution triggered public outrage. Led by Ana Redondo, the Ministry of Equality is drafting an abolitionist law aimed at criminalizing pimping. While a press conference in June indicated the draft would appear before the Council of Ministers in September, by autumn government sources suggested it would reach the Council before the end of 2025.
The PSOE has also launched a nationwide campaign to reaffirm its abolitionist stance, coordinating motions at regional and municipal levels to combat sexual exploitation and raise awareness about the demand fueling it. Abolitionists, including mostly extreme feminist and rights-based organizations, warn that criminalization could further marginalize sex workers, particularly migrants who depend on this work for survival.
The philosophical and political debates have also changed, said Marian Arias, a psychologist with the Askabide Association. “Right now, abolitionism is gaining ground, with political parties pushing to pass abolitionist laws,” she stated. This stance, she argued, influences public perception and is directly linked to how the data is collected, associating exploitation and trafficking to prostitution.
Criminalization could further marginalize sex workers, particularly migrants who depend on this work for survival.
There is an urgent need to distinguish between prostitution, exploitation, and human trafficking, phenomena that often get conflated. The abolitionist position, she warned, distorts statistics by assuming all sex workers are exploited. “If you start from the position that everyone in prostitution is exploited, you automatically label them as trafficking victims,” she explained.
These debates unfold as the lives of migrant sex workers like Navas and Olivet continue to face barriers to basic rights like healthcare, state aid, and labor protections, all benefits linked to formal employment, added Bárbara Bolaños, intercultural mediator at the Committee for the Support of Sex Workers (CATS). Poverty and social exclusion have transformed the industry, leaving migrant workers particularly exposed to risks, she stressed.
Why are the majority of sex workers in Spain migrants?
“The feminization of poverty and growing migration have increased the presence of foreign-born workers,” Bolaños added. She explained that social stigma and the “double life” that many migrant women lead increase their vulnerability, particularly for those juggling care responsibilities and bureaucratic obstacles.
Irene Adán, anthropologist and member of the CATS, highlighted financial vulnerability as a key factor. In a CATS investigation on violence in prostitution, 94% of respondents were migrant women, half of whom were in irregular administrative situations, while only 6% were of Spanish origin. The most represented nationalities were Colombia (43%), Ecuador (10%), Paraguay (8%), Venezuela (7%), Brazil (5%), and Spain (6%). Economic and social precarity shapes their lives: 84% had dependents, and many struggled to access formal employment, making sex work an alternative within the informal economy. “It doesn’t mean it’s the last option for many, but that other jobs don’t offer better conditions,” Adán explained.
For some migrant women, sex work is also a survival strategy intertwined with personal agency. María Riot, a 34-year-old Argentinian sex worker, explained that barriers to other jobs and lack of legal papers made sex work both a way to survive and a space to build a career. Satanna, also a foreign sex worker and secretary of migration for the Organization of Sex Workers (OTRAS) in Spain, highlighted structural pressures, noting that migration status combined with economic need pushes women into the sector, while cultural and linguistic ties make Spain a common destination for Latin American migrants.
Efforts toward criminalization and abolition risk further marginalizing sex workers, particularly migrant women who depend on this work for survival. Poverty, social exclusion, and the absence of regulation have reshaped the industry, leaving them increasingly exposed to exploitation and abuse. As Bolaños noted, abolition would only deepen the barriers to basic rights such as healthcare, social aid, and labor protections, benefits reserved for those in formal employment. “Sex work exists, with or without a law. What’s missing is protection and being heard,” she said.
Without recognition or regulation, migrant sex workers remain trapped between criminalization and neglect, an unresolved contradiction at the heart of Spain’s equality policies, concluded Olivet.
