Over 100 Dutch girls, young women forced into prostitution in Belgium, Germany
Over a hundred Dutch girls and women have been exploited in prostitution in Belgium and Germany in recent years, according to a study by the Center for Child Trafficking and Human Trafficking (CKM), part of the expertise and treatment center Fier. There is hardly any insight into this group of victims, NOS reports.
This is the first study into Dutch victims of exploitation abroad. According to the CKM, this type of exploitation is far more common than previously thought. CKM’s research indicates that at least 125 Dutch victims were forced into sex work in Belgium and Germany between 2021 and 2023. Official records only contain nine victims.
CKM decided to conduct this research after a youth institution in the Dutch border region reported that girls were being picked up by men in cars with German license plates. Staff suspected that the girls were being sexually exploited across the border. There were also online sex advertisements pointing toward exploitation, and several young people contacted Fier’s anonymous chat service, saying they were forced to perform sex work in Belgium and Germany.
The expertise center interviewed over 200 aid workers, police officers, and other professionals in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium for this study. Dozens of aid workers said they had indications of Dutch victims in forced prostitution in Germany and Belgium. Aid workers also reported that these girls and women are sometimes forced to perform criminal jobs, like smuggling drugs.
According to the researchers, the victims are usually girls and young women who still live with their parents or in an institution. Some are minors. Often, the victims were already being exploited in the Netherlands.
Across the border, they are forced to have sex with clients in hotels, homes, sex clubs, and holiday parks. This often happens in villages just across the border, as well as in large cities like Antwerp and Duisburg.
The researchers also found indications of exploitation happening in the other direction, with German and Belgian girls being forced to perform sex work in the Netherlands.
According to the CKM, these signals are alarming and barely scratch the surface of this type of exploitation. The researchers found that Dutch police and aid organizations have very little contact with their counterparts across the border. “Except in acute exploitation situations, contact and information exchange seem to be virtually non-existent,” they said in the report. These organizations need better contact so that they can alert one another when they encounter potential victims.
“It should not matter whether a victim of exploitation has crossed a national border,” said CKM researcher Verena Elders. CKM urged Dutch Ministers to work with their foreign counterparts to gain better insight into this group of victims and to help them.
Minister David van Weel of Justice and Security told NOS that he will study the report and its recommendations carefully. “Every victim of human trafficking is one too many,” he said. “This applies all the more strongly when it concerns children and young adults, who are particularly vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking.”
