Window brothels slowly disappearing from Dutch streets; One in three closed in 15 years
Window brothels are becoming an increasingly rare sight in the Netherlands. In the past 15 years, about a third have disappeared. Forced closures are the main cause of the decline, Trouw reports.
In 2010, the Netherlands had about 1,500 red-lit windows where sex workers offered their services to passersby. Now, about 1,000 remain. Window brothels still exist in fewer than ten cities.
Municipalities closed multiple window brothels over the past decade and a half due to suspected crime, nuisance, or plans to make the neighborhood more attractive. In some cases, the operators themselves closed the brothels.
The decline was most significant in Utrecht, where the municipality closed all brothel boats on the Zandpad and the windows on Hardebollenstraat in 2013 due to human trafficking suspicions. Window brothels no longer exist in the city.
Amsterdam also closed many windows in its Red Light District in the past decade. About 150 sex work places have closed over the years as the city tried to make policing the sex industry more manageable and the Red Light District more attractive. According to Trouw, The Hague now has more sex work spaces than Amsterdam. Groningen, Leeuwarden, and Alkmaar also closed window brothels.
The decline started in 2000, when the sex work industry went from tolerated to legalized and municipalities started developing their own sex work policies. “The hope was that they would carefully consider the trade-off between facilitating and regulating the industry,” Yannick Bleeker of the research agency Regioplan told Trouw. “But in practice, many municipalities adopted repressive policies.”
But he added that the decline was not only due to municipal policies. “A large part of the sex market has moved online. Plenty of window operators complain about a lack of clients,” Bleeker told Trouw.
More window brothels will disappear in the coming years. Several cities have plans to tackle their red-light districts. Amsterdam, for example, plans to open an erotic center near the Rai, relocating about 100 windows from the Red Light District. Groningen and Deventer are considering converting vacant windows into homes and shops.
