Prosecutors worried about scrapping Dutch rules against exploitation of sex workers

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is concerned about a rule that the government wants to cut from a law against human trafficking. The result would be a deterioration of the approach to the exploitation of foreign sex workers, a spokesperson wrote to ANP in response to questions. The change is due for debate in Parliament next month, and could enter into force by 2026.

The previous Cabinet wanted to “modernize” the law against human trafficking and proposed deleting portions which are redundant. For example, a passage in which human trafficking is in part described as buying, taking or kidnapping someone else with the aim of transporting that person to another country where they will be made to have sexual contact with individuals who make payment.

Anyone who is guilty of this crime can currently be sentenced to 12 years in prison. The OM has approved of the Cabinet's plan to revamp the law but would have preferred to see the section on the exploitation of foreign sex workers expanded.

The spokesperson called the “very significant increase of the number of foreign sex workers” a sign "that pimps can now operate relatively unhindered.” Maarten Noordzij, who heads up the department for human trafficking prosecutions at the OM issued a stark warning about this in an interview with NRC published earlier on Tuesday.

There are currently 38 investigations into sex trafficking of foreign women. There is a rising trend regarding gangs suspected of trafficking women from China, Romania, and Latin American countries for the purpose of sexual exploitation, the newspaper reported.

Noordzij said the Netherlands is threatening to become a “safe haven for human traffickers” due to the law change. The legal provision which the Cabinet believes to be redundant is particularly useful when investigators are still trying to develop hard evidence against a suspected trafficker.

The Cabinet wrote that the rule against the exploitation of foreign sex workers “almost completely overlaps” with other parts of the law. According to the OM, this is incorrect.

"We believe that in legal practice, it will become more difficult to prove criminal offenses," the spokesperson said.