Prostitution as such is not punishable by law in Switzerland. This means that offering one’s own body occasionally and professionally to any person in return for money or other material gain is permitted. However, specifically for the purpose of prostitution it is not possible to obtain a permit either for work or stay in Switzerland.
Nevertheless, making someone available for prostitution by pressure or compulsion, keeping and supervising someone for prostitution under exploitary conditions or for one’s own enrichment is forbidden and is punishable by house of correction or prison. This means that a prostitute can accuse her procurer. When she does so, however, she reveals that she is in Switzerland illegally and can be deported immediately. An unknown proportion of the women who come from the former Eastern Block immediately become streetwalkers or work illegally in private apartments or in brothels.
Many of the women who work as prostitutes were enticed into Switzerland by false promises. Even those who know that they will be working as prostitutes are inadequately informed and do not know that they will be sold on by their procurers to sex salons and clubs.