However, there are many laws and local decrees that, to one degree or another, severely restrain the pursuit and organization of prostitution and the fundamental rights of the people involved in it. Society's basic principle for dealing with prostitution in the FRG is one of toleration and control. The basis of an effective, and not just superficial, control is registration by the governing authorities. However, no clear legal measure exists to enforce this. Therefore registration is implemented, almost everywhere with the exception of the federal Lands of Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin and within single communities i.
Frankfurt a. Several sources noted that because criminal laws conflict, contracts between prostitutes and customers were not considered valid ibid. Further, there was a "total absence of social security" for practitioners European Commission However, these new rights do not extend to foreign sex workers ibid. The Europap project reported in , that for foreigners,. Aliens who, "offend against an active rule or an administrative order which describes the perpetration of illicit sexual practices for a profit-making purpose" or endanger the public health with their behaviour, incur a criminal liability and can be expelled from the FRG.
In the interpretation of the courts, under the alien citizen law, prostitution is designated as having a profit-making purpose. Alien sex-workers are, therefore, debarred from having a legal status.
Nor can they gain such a status with a tourist visa since this visa forbids gainful employment. To achieve legal status they would need a visa which allows them to practice prostitution. But these visas are not issued by the German embassies, because prostitution is not an officially recognised occupation. Many such workers do not know this, or they are told lies by the organizers of their work.
The situation of women who are drawn into prostitution by dubious agencies which do exist makes these women particularly vulnerable to the law and to health risks. Ignorance of the language and of the conventions of sex-work, social isolation and the pressure of the pimps are other factors contributing to this vulnerability European Commission E of 24 August.
