Hungarian sex workers
Monday, August 6th, 2007
Prostitutes are to receive subsidised business classes. Like other self-employed people, they will pay tax and social security contributions. In exchange, they will gain the right to free healthcare and a pension.It exceeded the wildest dreams of Agnes Foldi, head of the Hungarian Prostitutes’ Interest Group (MPEE), whose members have started attending courses in accountancy and business law. In April, the MPEE’s website was telling visitors it had received Ft15.2m in subsidies for providing commercial training for budding businesswomen. The 110 places available were several times oversubscribed.
One part of the story goes back to summer 2005 and an event in Pecs. Police asked several prostitutes for identity papers and, finding they had no official documents on them at all, reported them to the tax authorities - who then fined them for concealing earnings. The MPEE appealed this ruling in court, saying the New York Convention, which Hungary ratified in 1955, prohibits compiling a register of sex workers. Last year, however, Baranya County Court rejected the MPEE’s appeal, saying taxation did not constitute a formal list.