What Future

for Prostitution

in Amsterdam

Cookies from Van Stapele

As the mayor of Amsterdam wants to regulate and control the exploding tourism in the city, the future of the windows and red lights are more than ever in danger.

For all the hotels and hostels in the area, the future decision will be crucial!

1. The explosion of tourism

It goes needless to say that tourism in Amsterdam has exploded the past few years, and that has caused a lot of tensions and issues all over town. The tourists are flooding the historical center, and brought a lot of noise and disturbances for the locals, the inflation of rents, the multiplication of snack shops , the disappearance of the traditional flower market, and so on….

But the past few months, mayor Femke Halsema ahs started to declare that the situation in the UNESCO world heritage site, the Red Light District, is creating more problems than value for the city, for the neighborhood, and for the sex workers.
About the latter, she explains that all the stag parties,  walking tours and drunk tourists do no longer offer a safe work environment and she has been resolute in finding solutions to change all that and rehabilitate the neighbourhood that is gangrened by street dealers, alcoholism, and street littering.

2. Four Possible Options Are Discussed

This month, new discussions will be opened at town meetings. Here are the 4 possible scenarios that are being studied:

Option 1

Closing the windows in the city. In this option, sex workers and their workplaces would no longer be opened to the streets, changing for sure the activity in the whole area.

Option 2

The second option would be less drastic, and only a few windows would be left open in the Red Light District. To balance it, a new area would be chosen to house a new small red light district (although it is not decided yet if the windows would be open to the street. A prostitution hotel could also be considered.

Option 3

The third option would be to completely stop the prostitution activities in the current Red Light District and to choose a new area further away for the sex workers. Whether this area would be open to the street or not is also going to be discussed. Prostitution hotel(s) could also be imagined.

Option 4

The final option would be all about expanding. The 330 windows in the Red Light District and the Singel area would be kept, but new areas would also welcome sex workers in order to split the current touristic and client activity.

However, no matter what option gets chosen in the end, the focus will be to make sure that human rights are central for the sex workers, but also to make sure that human traffickng, fraud and money laundering will be easier to fight!

But do the sex workers really think those options will help them? And is it really the best idea to delocalize this historical area?

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