Sex workers protest new law

'Indignant Prostitutes' take to the streets in Barcelona, angry at the city's plans to ban street prostitution

Unemployment in the crisis-stricken country has reached 23 percent, and sex workers say this is the only way they can earn a living.

This woman says the police make their lives difficult as it is and that tightening the law will make it even harder to feed a family.

But this legal brothel has been making bigger profits every year since the crisis hit.

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) STEPHANE GOMEZ, OWNER OF FELINA, SAYING:

"Since the famous world crisis appeared, we have been earning more each year, but that's because we have compensated for the loss of purchasing power, offering more. We have adapted, we advertise more, promote more, and this has been cost effective because maybe those brothels which didn't know how to manage the business have had to close down, so we attract more clients all the time."

There are no official figures for the number of prostitutes in Spain but according to the UN the oldest profession is twice as popular as it is in the Netherlands.

Lily Grimes, Reuters