prostitution

The first meeting to discuss the future of Amsterdam’s Red Light District was met with disagreement and polarizing opinions on Wednesday evening at the Compagnietheater, the 18th century former church that sits in De Wallen. The meeting, organized by Mayor Femke Halsema, gathered residents, sex workers, and entrepreneurs who will be affected by the proposed changes for the area. 

More than 40 thousand people signed a petition to make paying for sex a punishable offense. Exxpose, the Christian inspired and politically independent youth movement that initiated this petition, will hand it to the Tweede Kamer this week, the Volkskrant reports.

The number of reports of foreign men being forced into prostitution in the Netherlands doubled over the past year. The victims are often asylum seekers and refugees picked up by human traffickers, according to research by Radio Reporter, NPO Radio 1 reports.

Sex workers from dozens of countries marched through Amsterdam on Tuesday to protest for better legislation for their profession. Worldwide there is not enough attention for the safety of sex workers, said Proud, the Dutch association for sex workers and the organizer of the march, NOS and Het Parool report.

Many of the promotion girls Heineken uses in African countries to stimulate the sale of the Dutch beer, are faced with sexual harassment during their work, according to Olivier van Beemen, who investigated the situation these young women face and wrote a book about it.

In an article in NRC, Van Beemen writes that many Heineken promotion girls have to deal with sexual harassment or assault, have to go to bed with managers, and prostitute themselves to clients. Heineken has known about this problem for 15 years, but does little about it, he said.

At least 70 boys and young men between the ages of 14 and 22 years are active in prostitution in and around Eindhoven, and not all of them willingly, according to a study by welfare organization Lumens. The municipality of Eindhoven is shocked by these figures, alderman Renate Richters said to Nieuwsuur.

Criminals involved at least three school pupils in Den Bosh in prostitution and drug trading, mayor Ton Rombouts said in response to questions from PvdA city councilor Lisette van der Swaluw. The mayor believes that more kids may have been approached to become involve in illegal activities, but they wont come forward out of shame or fear for those who approached them, the Gelderlander reports.

In a city center that is filled with co-working spaces, it is not particularly surprising that a new hub for sex workers in Amsterdam's famed Red Light District is using ideas like flexible room rental agreements, a website showing who is working at any given time and what their skills are, and a sort-of networking lounge like those seen in many of the city's shared working environments. My Red Light was unveiled to journalists on Friday, over two years after the city's mayor first floated the idea of a brothel completely managed and run by sex workers.

The construction of 162 window brothels on the Nieuwe Zandpad in Utrecht was delayed for the time being. An investigation into the investor revealed that "a serious dangerous" exists that crimes are being committed with the property that was to be built, Utrecht Mayor Jan van Zanen said on Thursday, ANP reports. 

A special program Apeldoorn launched early this year to help people over 24 years of age leave prostitution, is bearing fruits. So far five women and one man made use of the program to get out of prostitution, the mayor and aldermen announced to the Apeldoorn city council, De Stentor reports.

The Council of State rejected objections from Utrecht residents against the construction of a new prostitution zone along the river Vecht. Utrecht now has the green light to start construction on the Nieuwe Zandpad, NOS reports.