German labor office sends teen to work in brothel

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German teenager looking for a job was told to report for duty in a brothel by the local labor office, the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old woman said she was horrified when she opened a job placement letter from the German Labor Office in Augsburg on Saturday informing her that it had lined up a waitressing job for her at the Augsburg Colosseum brothel.

"I was looking for a decent housekeeping job - not working at a brothel bar," the young woman told the newspaper. "I was totally shocked when I read the letter. My mother even started screaming out loud when she read the letter."

Prostitution is legal in Germany.

The head of the Augsburg labor office, Roland Fuerst, was quoted by the newspaper saying that the agency had made a mistake even though it knew the Colosseum is a brothel. He said that the agency should have first called the woman to check to see if she might be interested in the brothel job rather than simply sending her a letter.

(Reporting by Erik Kirschbaum, editing by Paul Casciato)