The issue of Trafficking

Trafficking arrived into governmental schedule after stress of feminists and you may the new national ladies coverage company. In the first place, feminine was basically trafficked out of The southern part of China (significantly Thailand in addition to Philippines), Latin The usa (Columbia while the Dominican Republic and you can Africa (Ghana); following the slip of Berlin Wall structure, trading routes shifted so you’re able to Central and East European countries. Governmental needs was in fact defining the brand new offence way more generally so you’re able to assists prosecution and you may enhancing the punishment away from 5 to 6 years, so as that culprits could be held in the remand custody. The fresh content regarding penal password towards the individual trafficking was basically changed within the 1993, which have a very particular concept of the offense and higher charges having traffickers (Outshoorn 2004a: 195). This new blogs had been presented when you look at the a gender-simple means, and you may trafficking stayed defined as pressuring a guy to your prostitution.

In the parliamentary debates on trafficking around that period, foreign women were portrayed as victims of unscrupulous traffickers tricked into prostitution. This framing was tied into a discourse about the divide between the rich and poor countries: female prostitutes from the ‘Third World’ were driven by poverty. Gradually, a more insidious edge crept into this discourse when Christian Democrats in parliament linked trafficking to illegal migration, opening a space for ‘false’ victims, who used the loopholes in the law to work illegally as a prostitute in the Netherlands (HTK, 1991–1992, TK 81, pp. 4994, 4995, e time they also started to argue that all women from non-EU countries working in the sex industry were victims of forced prostitution. Therefore in their view, the best remedy to stop trafficking was to prevent non-EU women from working in the Dutch sex industry in the first place. This reasoning eradicated the figure of a woman migrant deciding to work as a sex worker in the West and who might make use of intermediaries to enter the country-with her consent. But then she was ‘illegal’ and ought to be deported.

Successive cabinets continued to refuse work permits on similar grounds, also arguing there was no national interest at stake which normally justifies extending work permits to non-EU persons. They were backed by a recurring majority in parliament; the parliamentary records show many references to the fear of foreign prostitutes entering the country which would subvert immigration policies. The fear resurfaced in the memorandum to the bill to lift the brothel ban, as one of the aims of the bill was to halt ‘the stream of foreign prostitutes’ (HTK 1996–97, 25437 (Opheffing Algemeen Bordeelverbod), no. 3 (Memorie van Toelichting), 1 July 1997, p. 13). The refusal to grant work permits was also generally justified by the aim of stopping the trafficking of women; permits would encourage traffickers to transport women into the country.

Kinds of Sex Workers

Further implementation of the fresh new act resulted in the construction away from no lower than five types of prostitutes. First of all, there is the ethnically undefined Dutch sex staff which voluntarily determines to be effective during the prostitution that’s the holder out of civil and you may public liberties. Furthermore, you will find the new prostitutes off their Eu regions who can move easily inside and outside of the Netherlands and you will are employed in the sex globe. These kinds split into one or two categories pursuing the accession into the European union of one’s Baltic States, Poland, Hungary, the new Czech Republic and you will Slovakia inside 2004, and make a 3rd class exactly who can simply lawfully behave as prostitutes once they had been independent sex workers and not staff. Within the 2007, sex experts about the new European union members had been acknowledged with the an equal ground towards older European union affiliate professionals, nevertheless the third class try today full of sex specialists regarding Bulgaria and Romania whenever both countries entered the brand new European union for the reason that exact same 12 months. Like their predecessors, such women are allowed to become independent sex pros, however, up until Karlsruhe hookers now far less staff.