New plan calls for more care for victims of pimps

An action plan second chamber member Naïma Azough is presenting today to state secretary Martin van Rijn (Public Health) suggests that municipalities be given a bigger role in the care for victims of pimps. The plan is for an integral approach that focuses on prevention and accommodation of girls and young women. The numbers of victims of pimps -or loverboys as they are called here- are on the rise; the loverboys seduce their victims and then force them into prostitution. Whereas figures from the National Rapporteur Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence speak of 63 underaged victims of human trafficking in 2009, there were 165 in 2013. As of January 1 2015 municipalities will be given more youth care tasks. Youth care organisations are already looking at how to intensify the help they provide and how to improve the registration of victims.