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Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal and regulated. Operating a brothel is also legal. The majority of women working in this business are foreigners. In the last few years, a significant number of brothels and "windows" have been closed because of suspected criminal activity. De Wallen, the largest and best-known red-light district in Amsterdam, is a destination for international sex tourism.
An article in Le Monde in 1997 stated that 80% of prostitutes in the Netherlands were foreigners and 70% had no immigration papers, suggesting that at least some were victims of sex trafficking, forced prostitution.[1] [2]
A study by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000 estimated that there were a total of between 20,000 and 25,000 prostitutes in the Netherlands, on a yearly basis. Approximately 32% were Dutch, 22% were Latin American, 19% were Eastern European, 13% were African (south of the Sahara), 6% came from other countries from the European Union (aside from the Netherlands), 5% came from Northern Africa and 3% were Asian. Approximately 5% of the prostitutes were male, and another 5% were transsexual. An encyclopedia article published in 1997 claimed about 1,300 men working in homosexual prostitution, and almost none in heterosexual prostitution.[3]
In 2008, Karina Schaapman, a former prostitute and now a member of the Amsterdam city council, produced a report about the Amsterdam sex trade. She offered the police a face book with 80 "violent pimps", of whom only three were Dutch-born. She said that more than 75% of Amsterdam's 8,000 to 11,000 prostitutes were from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.[4]
An article in the New York Times in February 2008 stated that officials estimate that sexual transactions in Amsterdam account for about 100 million US dollars per year.[5] The red light district is also a popular tourist attraction, so the revenues that Amsterdam earns in tourism can be partly linked to brothels and the unusual appeal they bring to city. There were 142 licensed brothels in Amsterdam, with about 500 window displays. Seventy-five percent of Amsterdam’s 8,000-11,000 prostitutes immigrated from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
According to a representative study in 1989, 13.5 percent of Dutch men reported having paid for sex at least once; 2.6 percent reported having done so in the previous year.[3]
Many customers who pay for sex here are foreigners from other European countries and from the US.
During the Middle Ages, prostitution was allowed. The attitude of worldly and religious authorities towards prostitution was pragmatic. Many cities tolerated prostitution to protect chaste female citizens from rape and defilement. There were, however, a number of conditions imposed on prostitutes and their clients. Prostitutes were not allowed to be married. Married men and Jewish men were prohibited from hiring prostitutes.
Still, prostitution was considered a dishonorable profession. Prostitutes were not expected to conform to sexual rules, and were not protected by the law. The concept of "honor" was very important in early modern Dutch society. Honor had social significance, but it also had legal ramifications. "Honorable" people had more rights. Until the late sixteenth century honor, aside from citizenship, was the most important criterion for the stratification of society.
Despite the fact that prostitution was seen as indispensable, city governments tried to separate "dishonorable" prostitution from the honorable world. Until the fifteenth century, Dutch cities tried to keep prostitution outside of the city walls. Later, city governments tried to reserve certain areas of the city for prostitution. Prostitution businesses were driven to the streets and alleys near the city walls.
Typical is the following decree from the city of Amsterdam in 1413:
During the sixteenth century, attitudes about sexuality changed under the influence of the Spanish occupation and rising Protestantism. Sexual relations were only tolerated within marriage. Church and state were not separated, and what was defined by the church as a sin was defined as a crime by the government. Prostitution and procurement were viewed as a sin and therefore prohibited. However, during this century the city of Amsterdam started to regulate prostitution. Only the police and the bailiff and his servants could keep a brothel in the Pijl and Halsteeg (currently the Damstraat). Prostitutes who practiced their trade in other parts of the city were arrested and their clients fined. Prostitution was a lucrative trade for the bailiff's servants as well as for the city treasury. In 1578, the city of Amsterdam left the Spanish side during the Netherlands uprising and converted from Catholicism to Calvinism. The city then stopped regulating prostitution.
Calvinistic morals were mirrored in the government policies of the seventeenth century. Titillating activities like dancing, fairs and prostitution were sometimes outlawed. This morality didn't however, always correspond with the views and customs of the people. During the Golden seventeenth century sexuality was openly displayed in paintings and in literature. The image of the prostitute in literature was very negative. Prostitutes were portrayed as unreliable, impudent, lazy, and often ugly and dirty. In paintings, the image of the prostitute was more positive. Brothel-scenes were an important subject and prostitutes were painted as beautiful young women. The clients, however, were portrayed as fools who allowed themselves to be deceived. In both literature and paintings the madams were portrayed as evil profiteers. The authorities couldn't uphold the laws against prostitution and tended to leave brothels alone if they didn't cause trouble.
During the eighteenth century the morals preached by the church and government became more in line with certain developments within Dutch society. There was a growing middle class which tried to distinguish itself by a strong work ethic and self-control. By restrained sexual behavior, the middle class could separate itself from the 'loose' lower class as well as the indecent nobility. Rich and poor also began to separate geographically. Prior to this period different social classes lived side by side, but they now lived in separate neighborhoods. The image of women also changed. Bourgeois women were seen by men of their class as faithful and chaste, but working-class women were viewed by middle class men as potential whores.
The working conditions of prostitutes were very poor. There was no proper birth control, condoms were not widely available and there were no effective cures against venereal diseases. Prostitutes often became pregnant and, because of venereal diseases they eventually became infertile. This situation would not improve before the twentieth century.
Prostitutes allowed very little sexual variation. The only sexual positions which were tolerated were the missionary position and standing upright, face to face. Anal sex, kissing, and oral sex were strictly taboo.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century the armies of Napoleon started to regulate prostitution in the Netherlands (in 1810) to protect soldiers against venereal diseases. Prostitutes were forced to register and were subjected to mandatory medical examinations. Registered prostitutes were handed a red card which was a sort of work permit. If they were found to be infected, their red card was taken and they were given a white card instead while they were prohibited from working and were only allowed to work when declared fit. After the French occupation the Dutch government stopped regulating prostitution, but during several decades slowly began to regulate prostitutes again in the same style as under the French occupation. Many scientists during the nineteenth century believed that sexual abstinence for men was unhealthy. In their eyes it was unavoidable that a number of women had to sacrifice themselves to protect the rest of the women from destruction of an even more revolting kind. The women who had to sacrifice themselves were supposed to be lower class. Prostitutes themselves, however, were still despised and portrayed as disgusting creatures. Lower class people themselves detested prostitutes. Prostitutes stood outside society.
During this 19th century, sexual morals became stricter and a counter movement arose against regulated prostitution. In the beginning, this movement consisted of wealthy orthodox-Protestant Christians, but it later got support from other movements like Catholics, socialists, feminists and progressive liberals. They attacked the idea that men could not abstain from sex. Clients were viewed as low, dirty lechers, and the clients were not the young unmarried men prostitution was meant for, but were often well-off middle-aged married men. They also attacked the mandatory medical examinations which were deemed degrading and ineffective to stop the spread of venereal diseases. Many prostitutes lived in the brothels and were bound to the madams by debts to pay off expensive working clothes. Prostitutes were often sold among madams, were subjected to fines, and could only leave the brothel under supervision. Medical expenses were added to their debt. Brothel keepers throughout Europe sold women among each other. The abolitionist movement (as the opponents of prostitution were called) in the Netherlands was largely connected to the international abolitionist movement. The movement slowly gained more influence and during the last decades of the nineteenth century city governments slowly started to abolish regulated prostitution. At first, the abolitionist movement mainly targeted mandatory health checks for prostitutes, but when the movement became more successful the focus shifted towards the people who profited from prostitution. In 1911 living on the avails of prostitution and owning a brothel were prohibited by law. Prostitution itself was not prohibited.
Until the 1970s, prostitutes in the Netherlands were predominantly white lower-class women from the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Northern Germany. During the seventies, in the wake of the sex trips to South-East Asia by Dutch men, the sex operators brought in women from Thailand and the Philippines. In the eighties there was a second wave from Latin America and Africa. In the nineties, after the fall of the Soviet Union, women came from Eastern Europe. Foreign prostitutes are economically motivated to come to The Netherlands, and they tend to travel to engage in sex work between Holland, Germany, Belgium, and other European societies.
During the second half of the twentieth century, prostitution and brothels were condoned and tolerated by many local governments. The police only interfered when public order was at stake or in cases of human trafficking. The reasoning behind this gedoogbeleid (policy of tolerance) was harm reduction, and the belief that the enforcement of the anti-prostitution laws would be counterproductive, and that the best way to protect the women was to tolerate prostitution. This genuine Dutch policy of tolerating formally illegal activities for harm reduction purposes has been and still is also applied towards illegal drugs in the Netherlands.[6] (See drug policy of the Netherlands.)
The Red Thread (De Rode Draad) is a support and advocacy association for prostitutes that was founded in 1985 and works for the legitimization and against the stigmatization of prostitutes. Prostitution was defined as a legal profession in January 1988.
Brothel prohibition made it difficult to set rules for the sex industry. During the eighties many municipalities urged the national government to lift the ban on brothels. In 1983 Minister Korthals Altes had presented an amendment to the law on prostitution. It took until October 1, 2000 for brothels to leave the half-legal status of being tolerated and to become fully legal and licensed businesses. Prostitutes may work as regular employees, though the vast majority work as independent contractors. The Dutch union FNV has accepted prostitutes as members since that time.
In the 1990s, Dutch attitudes supported the legalization of prostitution: in a 1997 survey, 73 percent of Dutch citizens favored legalization of brothels, 74 percent said that prostitution was an "acceptable job," and in a 1999 poll 78 percent felt that prostitution is a job like any other job (polls cited in Weitzer 2000, p. 178).
When the Dutch government legalized prostitution in 2000, it was to protect the women by giving them work permits, but authorities now fear that this business is out of control: "We’ve realized this is no longer about small-scale entrepreneurs, but that big crime organizations are involved here in trafficking women, drugs, killings and other criminal activities", said Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam.[5] Recently, officials have noticed an increase in violence centered around this irregular industry, and have blamed this increase on the illegal immigration of individuals into Amsterdam, to participate in the sex industry: "The guys from Eastern Europe bring in young and frightened women; they threaten them and beat them", said a resident of De Wallen [7]. Prostitution has remained connected to criminal activities, which has led the authorities to take several measures, including detailed plans to help the prostitutes quit the sex trade and find other professions.[8] In response to the problems associated with the involvement of organized crime into the sex trade, the Dutch government has decided to close numerous prostitution businesses (see below).
Concerned about organized crime, money laundering and human trafficking, Amsterdam officials under mayor Job Cohen denied the license renewals of about 30 brothels in the Amsterdam red light district De Wallen in 2006; the brothel owners appealed. To counter negative news reports, the district organized an open house day in 2007 and a statue to an unknown sex worker was unveiled.[9] In September 2007 it was announced that the city of Amsterdam was buying several buildings in the red light district from Charles Geerts in order to close about a third of the windows.[10]
At the end of 2008, mayor Job Cohen announced plans to close half of the city’s 400 prostitution windows because of suspected criminal gang activity. The mayor is also closing some of the city’s 70 marijuana cafes and sex clubs.[11] This comes at the same time as the Government's decision to ban the sale of magic mushrooms and the closure of all coffee shops situated near schools.[4] Mayor Job Cohen: "It is not that we want to get rid of our red-light district. We want to reduce it. Things have become unbalanced and if we do not act we will never regain control."[4]
In 2009 the Dutch justice ministry announced the appointment of a special public prosecutor charged with closing down prostitution windows and coffee shops connected to organized crime syndicates.[12]
The Netherlands is listed by the UNODC as a top destination for victims of human trafficking.[13] Countries that are major sources of trafficked persons include Thailand, China, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine[13], Sierra Leone, and Romania.[14]
Currently, human trafficking in the Netherlands is on the rise, according to figures obtained from the National Centre against Human Trafficking. The report shows a substantial increase in the number of victims from Hungary and China. There were 809 registered victims of human trafficking in 2008, 763 were women and at least 60 percent of them were forced to work in the sex industry.[15] [16]
Within the Netherlands, victims are often recruited by so called "lover boys" – men who seduce young Dutch women and girls and coerce them into prostitution.
Many victims of human trafficking are led to believe by organized criminals that they are being offered work in hotels or restaurants or in child care and are forced into prostitution with the threat or actual use of violence. Estimates of the number of victims vary from 1000 to 7000 on a yearly basis. Most police investigations on human trafficking concern legal sex businesses. All sectors of prostitution are well represented in these investigations, but particularly the window brothels are overrepresented. [17] [18] [19]
At the end of 2008, a gang of six people were sentenced to prison terms of eight months to 7 1/2 years in what prosecutors said was the worst case of human trafficking ever brought to trial in the Netherlands. The case involved more than 100 female victims, violently forced to work in prostitution.[20] In December 2009, two Nigerian men were sentenced to 4 and 4 1/2 years in prison for having smuggled 140 Nigerian women aged 16-23 into the Netherlands. The women were made to apply for asylum and then disappeared from asylum centers, to work as prostitutes in surrounding countries. The men were said to have used "voodoo" curses on the women to prevent escape and enforce payment of debts.[21]
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   | Donna Hughes' factbook on sexual exploitation - Netherlands - Facts on Trafficking and Prostitution |
| | the "Prostitution Information Centre" in Amsterdam - Wallenwinkel - Informatie over de Amsterdamse Wallen - Red Light District |
| | website "meld misdaad anoniem" - Meld Misdaad Anoniem |
| | part 2 - The address you requested is obsolete |
| | TAMPEP report, June 2002-June 2004, part 1 - The address you requested is obsolete |
| | TAMPEP, Transnational AIDS/STD prevention among migrant prostitutes in Europe, September 2000/February 2002, Final Report - The address you requested is obsolete |
| | Amsterdam XXX | The Walletjes - Home - Amsterdam XXX -The Red Light Districts |
| | Purchasing Sexual Services in Sweden and the Netherlands - Purchasing Sexual Services - regjeringen.no |
| | Netherlands Prostitution - Search Results for "utopiawiki.com" |
| | Tourism information - Amsterdam Hotspots - the guide to Amsterdam city |
| | De Rode Draad - De Rode Draad: De Rode Draad |
| | Visitors flood Amsterdam's red-light district - Visitors flood Amsterdam's red-light district | International | Reuters |
| | Netherlands and the Autonomous Dutch Antilles - The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality: Netherlands and the Autonomous Dutch Antilles |
| | Prostitutes fume as Norway bids to criminalise sex purchases - Prostitutes fume as Norway bids to criminalise sex purchases |
| | "Pimping ban in Amsterdam?" - Pimping ban in Amsterdam? - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - English |
| | "Amsterdam closes a window on its red-light tourist trade" - Amsterdam closes a window on its red-light tourist trade | Travel | The Observer |
| | Court shuts top Amsterdam brothel - BBC NEWS | Europe | Court shuts top Amsterdam brothel |
| | 'Ook sekshuis Yab Yum werd afgeperst' - 'Ook sekshuis Yab Yum werd afgeperst' - Binnenland - NL & Wereld - ED |
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