Cities will soon monitor sex work for coercion, but privacy concerns remain

Municipalities in the Netherlands will soon be required to register people who are participating in sex work to determine if they are doing so voluntarily, and if they meet minimum age and language ability requirements. The measure is meant to guarantee that people earning money from legal sex work have not been coerced, and are protected from abuse, said newspaper AD in a report on Wednesday.

It is not yet clear when the new measure will take effect. It will also give the cities the right to review company records from sex work operators, and to read the intake interviews of anyone working for them. Cities will also be able to randomly review the age of those workers, and to check that sex workers and the firms where they work are able to understand each other whether in Dutch, English, or another common language.

André van Dorst is critical of the plan. He heads up an association of businesses that work in the industry, known as the Vereniging Exploitanten Relaxbedrijven. The victims of human trafficking are far more likely to be found in illegal sex businesses, and not properly licensed and registered companies acting out in the open. He said those forced into prostitution are trafficked on apps and websites.

Further, The new rules will require both the operator and the city to maintain and process personal data. The data can be kept for up to five years.

“It is not at all good for municipalities to register who is playing the role of the whore,” Van Dorst told the newspaper. It is “a useless solution, to the disadvantage of prostitutes who lose an important piece of privacy.” The measure is only meant as a show piece for municipalities to say they have their house in order.

However, Ina Hut disagrees, saying that the limitation on the length of time that data is kept does continue their right to privacy. Hut is the director of CoMensha, an organization monitoring developments in human trafficking.

“Unfortunately there is still forced prostitution, sometimes also by minors,” Hut said. “This change can also protect sex workers who do work voluntarily.''