Sex workers and ex-addicts show tourists Czech capital’s dark side

Every Friday, Lada leaves her small apartment to take tourists around Prague’s underworld.

“I pass on my cautionary tale,” says the 54-year-old sex worker as she chain-smokes her way through Wenceslas Square in the Czech capital.

“At least my ruined life can be useful. I can make a clean breast of it. It’s a relief.”

Lada, who was homeless for years, is one of six tour guides who work for a social enterprise called Pragulic that tackles “myth and prejudice” around people who live on the streets of Prague.

Lada became a sex worker at 19. Photo: AFP

The city was infamous for its criminal underworld and drug problem in the 1990s. It still has a substantial homeless population of around 4,000, according to its social services.