Police are trying to get condoms banned from Edinburgh’s licensed saunas, in a move which charities say will increase HIV rates and force the city’s prostitutes out onto the street.
A meeting of the Scottish capital’s licensing committee will decide today if a number of saunas – traditionally tolerated as a safe place for sex workers to conduct their business – will be forced to close.
Police Scotland has written to the city council arguing that the five saunas should only receive licences on the condition that there is a ban on all “items of a sexual nature” on the premises.
Charities which support sex workers in the city have attacked the police’s objections as “morality-driven”, and say it would put the lives of prostitutes and their clients at risk, The Independent informs.
