U.K. To Make Paid Sex With A Trafficked Woman A Crime

London, England (AHN) - The British government will publish Wednesday a proposal that would impose stiff penalties on customers of women forced into prostitution. Among the sanctions eyed is a charge of rape, which has a potential life sentence for males caught having paid sex with women who were trafficked or handled by a pimp.

The measure seeks to curb prostitution in the United Kingdom. According to the Metropolitan police, 70 percent of 88,000 women prostitutes in England and Wales are under the control of traffickers.

The proposal represents a turnaround in Labor policy which in 2004 suggested the partial decriminalization of prostitution in red-light tolerance zones and planned to permit two or three females to work together in a brothel to provide themselves protection.

According to Home Office Sec. Jacqui Smith, the measure is the result of a six-month review of prostitution laws in the land, which included visits by ministers to Amsterdam and Stockholm to observe its prostitution laws and practices.

Critics to the proposal said it would only worsen the paid sex problem in Britain. Conservative Women's spokeswoman Theresa May said, quoted by the U.K. Telegraph, "Once again the government's answer is to reach for new legislation... The risk is this will force this activity even further underground, putting vulnerable women in even more danger."