This short article describes the prostitution of Bulgarian women in the Czech Republic and the way this activity is organiz ed. Prostitutes from Bulgaria have represented and still represent a major portion of foreign prostitutes working in the Czech Republic. In , when I started working for R-R, 8 percent of our clients were Bulgarians. The number of Bulgarian prostitutes ha s fluctuated since then.
In , the number fell , but s ince then, the share of Bulgarians visiting R-R stands at around 4 percent. In the past few years, our Bulgarian clients have changed.
Between and , the clients were on average better educated, spoke some Czech and regularly came to the downtown Prague consulting room for complete gynecological and STD checkups. After that, their age and level of education dropped.
We estimate that today, 80 percent of them are illiterate. Also, their knowledge of Czech or Russian is poorer. Some of the women cannot even speak Bulgarian and have to resort to speaking in the Roma or Turkish language.
It is important to note that with respect to the described changes among Bulgarian clients , these women now have a harder time coming to R-R than before. They are prohibited from contacting people outside of the ir organization. The year was a turning point regarding the frequency of Bulgarian visitors , most likely due to changes in the hierarchy of organized gang s before, an experienced prostitute would accompany other girls for checkups a nd growing mistrust towards institutions and people.
