When Maltese politicians protect those who traffic women, rather than protecting the women

Malta has a long and dirty history in the trafficking of women for prostitution: in the cities of colonial Egypt, in England and in Malta itself, where the Grand Harbour area teemed with brothels and prostitutes who included children of both genders.

The proliferation in Malta in recent years of places which are a spin-off from this sick trade, masquerading as “gentlemen’s clubs”, has never surprised me. It is entirely in keeping with Maltese society and its history of women-trafficking and prostitution: the brothel of the Mediterranean, the dark side that people choose not to remember, to ignore entirely, or to dress up as cute in prettified tales of ‘Strada Stretta’, a sordid nightmare of a place where women, girls and boys (but never men) suffered.