Prostitution in Argentina exchanging sex for money is legal under Federal law. Article 19 of the constitution states: "The private actions of people that do not offend in any way the public order and morality, nor damage a third person, are only reserved to God, and are exempt from the authority of the magistrates.
Sex workers and the Human Rights Report of the US Department of State , report corruption, abuse and violence towards sex workers by the police. Only 3 of these have been solved. From independence in , Argentina attracted immigrants from Europe which included prostitutes. Prostitution was not a criminal offence, and in it was legalised and regulated in Buenos Aires. Between and World War I the country developed a reputation as "the port of missing women" as a result of Jewish white slavers and pimps who took advantage of poverty, unemployment and pogroms in Eastern Europe to recruit young Jewish women into prostitution in South America with false promises of marriage.
Most of the prostitutes in Argentina in this period were non-immigrant Catholics, but anti-semitism fuelled concerns about Jewish involvement in prostitution. The system of regulated prostitution in Buenos Aires was abolished in The new red-light district in Buenos Aires was never built. In January , the head of the Rosario branch, Sandra Cabrera was murdered.
Gay prostitutes are marginalized in Argentina. The Trafficking in Persons Report of the US Department of State ranked Argentina is a Tier 2 country, [10] however as a result of key achievements by the government, it was upgraded to Tier 1 in The country is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking. Argentine women and children are subjected to sex trafficking within the country, as are women and children from other Latin American countries, particularly Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Brazil.
To a more limited extent, Argentine women and children are subjected to sex trafficking in other countries, mostly in Europe. Transgender Argentines are exploited in sex trafficking within the country and in Western Europe. In , the Municipality of Ushuaia was ordered to pay restitution to a victim after being found complicit of facilitating trafficking by failing to adequately regulate brothels.
