The Hague calls on government to keep helping prostitutes get out of sex work

The municipality of The Hague is calling on the Dutch government to keep funding a program that helps prostitutes get out of sex work and build up a new living. Alderman Karsten Klein will send a letter with this call to the government this week, and hopes to also get support from his colleagues in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, NOS reports.

Over the past few years, the municipality helped over 200 of the about 1,200 prostitutes in The Hague step out of the profession. This was done with support of the 'Stepping out of Prostitution Program', which the government released 3 million euros for annually. But that subsidy ends in the middle of next year. Klein wants it to continue.

"The government subsidy was a good policy. It's important to give women a chance to get out of the profession. In the past year we helped any prostitutes in The Hague build a new life, and I would like to continue that", Klein said, according to NOS. "Prostitutes experience many obstacles in building a life outside the prostitution sector."

Between 2014 and 2018 The Hague planned to help 220 sex workers out of the prostitution sector. So far, the municipality did this for 205 prostitutes.