Netherlands still doing too little to protect children from exploitation

The Netherlands must do more to protect children from exploitation, the Center against Child and Human Trafficking (CKM) said in a new report published on Tuesday. The research looked at all conversations with victims of human trafficking held between 2019 and 2023 on the anonymous chat platform of Fier, an expertise and treatment center in the field of violence in dependent relationships.

During that period, almost 600 minor victims of sexual or criminal exploitation reached out on the chat platform, the CKM reported. According to the center, that is over twice as many as the number of formally registered victims in that period. “The fact that this is not changing is unacceptable,” said Shamir Ceuleers, head of the CKM. “We cannot accept this as normal.” Many of the victims on the chat platform had been exploited for a year or more.

In the report, the CKM repeated several recommendations that it had already made but which, according to the center, have not been sufficiently listened to. The government should address online platforms in their task of preventing or stopping sexual exploitation. “It is high time that the Minister of Justice and Security intervenes and introduces legislation,” said Ceuleers.

It also remains important to gain more knowledge and insight into parents as perpetrators of exploitation. In the years 2019 to 2023, almost 130 conversations showed that the victim was exploited by one or both parents. Within the approach to human trafficking, this group of perpetrators still forms a “blind spot,” the report states.

Furthermore, a “targeted strategy” must be developed to prosecute clients in human trafficking. Since 2022, clients have been punishable if they could have known that they were buying sex from a victim of human trafficking. However, CKM research into convicted clients shows that their prosecution by the police and the Public Prosecution Service is often still considered a by-catch. The center, therefore, recommends a follow-up study into how the criminalization is implemented.

Finally, the report shows that how people first respond to victims telling about their exploitation situation can be “very decisive” for the subsequent trajectory of victims. That is why the CKM believes that a study should be conducted into involving the social environment of victims in organizing protection and care.