AMSTERDAM — In the sexual tourist’s book of modern world wonders, the prostitution windows of Amsterdam’s famed red light district is surely near the top. Alas, due to rising crime rates, those days are drawing to a close.”We’re not knights on a morality crusade,” city spokesman Martien Maten assures the world, “and this is intended to target financial crime, not prostitution per se, but we do think it will change the face of the Red Light District.”
Legalized in 2000 by the Dutch government in order to more easily tax and regulate the rental of sexual favors that have beckoned to travelers for hundreds of years, prostitution faces an uncertain future starting with the new year, since one-third of its shop windows will be shuttered. According to Maten, a new law will be employed in order to revoke the licenses of brothels with owners involved with money laundering and other illegal financial activity.
Prostitution rights groups do not support the move, saying it will harm independent contractors who rent window spaces.
Mariska Majoor, an ex-prostitute who now runs the Prostitution Information Center in the center of the Red Light District believs the move is a result of government out of touch with the real issues. “The biggest problem we have is with pimps on the street, not the people who own the windows. Local politicians don’t understand that. Because they want to crack down on crime so badly they are acting like bulls in a china shop.”
“Fat” Charlier Geerts is one of the brothel and building owners in the district who plan to appeal the decision. Geerts lays claim to 20 buildings and 60 windows on the list for closure. Although he has been in trouble with the law, he was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in September 2005. Although he supports the city’s desire to curb criminal activity, he told local television station AT5 that the measure will wind up “hurting a bunch of people who have nothing to do with it.”
The financial screening aspect of the law is said to be a special hardship for smaller brothels, which often have a difficult time getting banks or accountants of any real value to work with them to keep their books in order.
Popular with sailors since the 17th century, it is believed that nearly a third of tourists who visit Amsterdam make a stop at the Red Light District’s popular bars, if not its brothels and sex clubs. Unfortunately, the area has become attractive to drug dealers, petty criminals, and human traffickers, inspiring infamously uptight mayor Job Cohen and his Labor Party to demand a change. Cohen had previously barred pole dancing at a popular night spot and enforced public nudity laws during the city’s Gay Pride festival.
Although women like Metje Blaak, a representative for the De Rode Draad labor union for prostitutes fears that workers will be forced to turn to the streets, thus potentially becoming victims of violent crime or disease, Maten insists that the sex trade has been in a downward trend and that the 300 prostitutes affected by the changes will simply move to any remaining brothels.
He’s not worried about how it will affect tourism, either. “Amsterdam has many other things to offer,” he insists.”
