Amsterdam student homes used for illegal sex work while students travel in summer
Student housing complexes in Amsterdam are increasingly popular for illegal prostitution, especially during the summer months when students are traveling, Amsterdam housing corporations told Parool. Exploiters approach students under false pretenses, offering to temporarily sublet their rooms.
According to the education agency Duwo, this mainly happens in July and August, when students go home or travel for the summer. The agency is very concerned, saying that this subletting can lead to illegal prostitution and, thus, human trafficking and exploitation. Duwo stressed that tenants need their landlord’s permission if they want to sublet their home.
At the end of June, Duwo sent an email to residents of the Science Park II complex in Amsterdam-Oost to inform them that illegal prostitution had occurred in a sublet room on Carolina MacGillavrylaan. The email said that an illegal sex worker had “once again” been active in the building, which has 554 student units.
According to Parool, residents in the group chat were shocked. Some reported feeling unsafe, partly due ot the presence of strange and often older men in the elevator. “They don’t look like students, and that really gives off creepy vibes,” one student wrote, “Especially when they get out of the elevator and don’t know where to go.”
A similar case recently occurred at the Spinoza campus in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, with 111 student units. “The municipality closed the property in question for three months,” a Duwo spokesperson told Parool.
Duwo estimates that there are dozens of cases of illegal prostitution in Amsterdam housing complexes. The agency doesn’t have exact figures.
The Amsterdam Federation of Housing Corporations (AFWC), the umbrella organization for nine housing corporations that manage 191,000 rentals in the city, confirmed the pattern to Parool. Illegal subletting combined with illegal prostitution happens across all housing corporations, but is particularly prevalent in student housing during the summer months, the AFWC said.
Last year, AFWC corporations terminated 40 rental contracts due to human trafficking or illegal prostitution, the AFWC spokesperson said. “And that’s a significant increase compared to the previous years, when the average was ten.”
That is “highly undesirable and unacceptable,” the AFWC spokesperson said. “Student housing is sometimes particularly ‘attractive’ because of the relatively fast turnover and the lower social control in the area. As a result, illegal prostitution is less likely to be noticed here.”
