Dutch waking up to legalization's failures

[sam]

Legalised prostitution: a dying trade

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currenta ... ed061031mc

The Dutch prostitutes' pressure group De Rode Draad (The Red Thread), reports that the number of brothels in the Netherlands has decreased dramatically since they were legalised. The organisation notes, however, that the number of saunas and massage parlours has increased. It seems the illegal sector is growing.

Legalising prostitution seemed like a good idea on paper. In the year 2000, when the law banning brothels was abolished, it was believed this would significantly improve the working conditions of prostitutes. However, the Rode Draad was recently commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs to investigate the effects of legalising the trade. Against all expectations, the investigators came across all manner of abuses.

Employment contracts

Officially, legal prostitutes are free to work as self-employed business people, but in practice most work for sex companies where the owner (usually male) calls the shots. The Rode Draad says they have often signed crippling contracts that require them, for example, to work 16 hour shifts, to obey clothing requirements, never to turn down customers, et cetera.

They also discovered that the number of brothels has decreased. The number of women working in windows in the red light districts has nearly halved in six years time. Young customers, in particular, are put off by the "depressing atmosphere". The Rode Draad's spokeswoman Metje Blaak says the brothels are facing increasing competition from other illegal businesses in the sex industry.

"There are so many things - there's internet and lots of disguised brothels, like partner clubs and what have you, which also involve prostitution, although they keep that quiet. Then there are massage parlours where men are stimulated to ejaculation by the masseuses - all new developments - so there is less work for real prostitutes."

Escort agencies

The investigators do not believe prostitution has moved elsewhere. Escort agencies would be a logical choice, for example, since you do not need a licence to open an escort agency. The Rode Draad points out that the escort sector is not that attractive: it is more expensive and it has a poor reputation. The question is whether they are right, given that their investigation was limited to legal brothels.

Sex slavery

Even though prostitutes complain about their working conditions, things are much worse in the illegal circuit. Amsterdam councillor Roel van Duijn, who represents the GreenLeft party, has spent several years looking at the illegal sex circuit and the trade in women.

Although he admits figures are hard to arrive at, he estimates there are 10,000 prostitutes in Amsterdam. Only a few thousand work in the visible legal circuit. The illegal circuit is rife with sex slavery, as it is mostly illegal immigrants who are bought and sold. Roel is not only looking to end illegal prostitution, he also wants to abolish legal prostitution too.

"There is a tendency in the Netherlands which believes that prostitution is a normal economic activity which should be made legal. I don't agree. In practice, prostitution has always been an illegal area, one which often attracts women from problem backgrounds. It is a fact too that women who have worked as prostitutes often continue to suffer from their traumatic experiences."

Responsibility

If you go along with Roel van Duijn's argument, the responsibility has to shift to the prostitutes' customers. A bill is being readied in Germany which would make it an offence to visit a brothel where women have been forced into prostitution. In Sweden the customers are already regarded as the offenders. In other words, visiting prostitutes is not regarded as a normal activity in these countries. As long as it is still regarded as acceptable in the Netherlands, the position of prostitutes will not improve. Neither the legal nor the illegal prostitutes.

[CoolAunt]

It seems to me that if men went to prostitutes just for the sexual contact that leads to orgasm, then the legal brothels would do just fine. I see this as further evidence that men go to prostitutes because they want so badly to hurt a woman sexually that they'll pay for it. Further, through the sex slave trade, they continue to secure their supply of women to sexually abuse.

[sam]

Amsterdam's famous red light area losing appeal

DPA, AMSTERDAM
Nov 05, 2006 Page 6

Amsterdam's red light district has seen better days.

A morning stroll on Friday through this most picturesque part of the Dutch capital reveals signs advertising windows for hire and an atmosphere of general depression.

The decline in "window prostitution" -- where the working women display themselves behind glass for the passing clientele -- has been documented in a new survey revealing that the number of window prostitutes in the Netherlands halved between 1999 and last year.

The survey, conducted by the Rode Draad organization that looks after the interests of prostitutes, found that many women were working 16-hour days for a pittance.

Legislation passed in 2000 that legalized brothels with the intention of improving conditions for prostitutes, had not led to better security or conditions, the report found.

Amsterdam's Wallen red light district bears this out. In an alleyway near the Oude Kerk (Old Church) that traces its history to the 13th century, a row of girls smiles tautly at passers-by.

A blonde with an eastern European accent calls out an invitation in English, but an attempt to engage her in conversation meets with an increasingly frosty response.

"You are in, you pay 50 euros {US$65]," she says.

A second attempt to ask her name and where she comes from, meets with: "What do you want? I'm not here to talk. Fifty euros."

The other girls avert their gaze as the visitor passes -- another time-waster.

The response is a typical one in the narrow alleyways off the canals.

The city authorities are investing large sums in the area, where most of the buildings are 17th century and many even older. The canal side roads are being repaved and the canals themselves repaired.

The Rode Draad report describes the atmosphere in many establishments as "depressing" and notes that younger men show little interest in old-style brothels and window prostitution.

It points to the rise in more upmarket businesses where sex is available for money, like massage salons, and saunas and to the "eroticization" of social life in general. The kind of kinky sex once sought in brothels is now to be had in the bedroom or at sex parties.

The Wallen bear out another conclusion. Virtual sex slavery based on the abuse of foreign women, whether from eastern Europe or from Africa remains widespread.

Prostitutes regularly have to pay exorbitant fees for the facilities in brothels, are often required to live on the premises and are forced into unsafe practices to keep the clients happy.

Local authorities are failing to act to ensure appropriate standards, and tax evasion is rampant, the report says.

As a wintry dusk descends, the pubs in the Wallen fill up and the atmosphere becomes livelier.

There is also little activity outside the establishments offering live shows, the doormen soliciting passers-by with scant success.