A new law in Belgium has paved way for sex workers to be entitled to official employment contracts, health insurance, and pension.
The law, which is the first of its kind in the world, also gave the sex workers the opportunity to go on maternity leave and sick days.
The new law came two years after sex work was decriminalised in Belgium.
Belgium’s decision to change the law was the result of months of protests in 2022, prompted by the lack of state support during the Covid pandemic.
The protests in support for labour laws for sex workers followed the Covid pandemic.
Unlike Belgium, sex work was intially legal in several countries, including Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, and Turkey.
Although the country would be the first globally to establish employment rights and contracts.
The development would allow sex workers to be treated like any other job.
Many sex workers said the new law would improve their lives.
One of the sex workers in Belgium, simply identified as Sophine, said the new law will give the opportunity to get paid and cater to her family needs.
“I had to work while I was nine months pregnant. I was having sex with clients one week before giving birth,” she told the BBC.
Ms Sophia, who had her fifth child by Cesarean, said she was told she would need some bed rest for six weeks.
But she says that wasn’t an option, and she went back to work immediately.
“I couldn’t afford to stop because I needed the money. But now it’s an opportunity for us to exist as people,” she said.
She explained that her life could have been much easier if she had had a right to maternity leave, paid by her employer.
A researcher at Human Rights Watch, Erin Kilbride, has applauded the new law.
Mr Kilbride said every country needed to be moving in the new direction.
“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” he added.
