Human trafficking
The Netherlands is a primary country of destination for victims of
human trafficking. Many of these 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.
[9] The victims mainly originate from the Netherlands,
Africa and
Eastern Europe, particularly from the
Balkans and the former
Soviet Union. 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.
[10][11]
Over the years there has been a significant increase of registered Dutch victims of human trafficking. In 2005 23% of the persons registered at the
Dutch Foundation Against Trafficking in Women were Dutch citizens.
[12]
In an effort to crack down on forced prostitution, a campaign
[13] was launched in 2005 in magazines through posters put up around the red-light districts encouraging clients to report signs of
coercion. The poster has an eyecatching silhouette of a spike-heeled prostitute with long hair leaning back, but on closer inspection another picture reveals a gun being held to the female's head. The caption reads "Have you seen the signals? Fear, bruises, no 'pleasure' in the job." It then goes on to offer a phone number which clients can call anonymously.
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Prostitution in the Netherlands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia