The Past

Now some more old (translated) material.

From the archives of nrc:

IND: prostituees niet zelfstandig [IND: prostitutes not independent]

By one of our editors

Thursday October 15th 1998

Eight out of ten Eastern European prostitutes who work on de Wallen of Amsterdam, are the victim of women trafficking. That was put forward by two police officers yesterday before the court of Amsterdam during the handling of an appeal of six Eastern European prostitutes against the rejection of their residence permit by the Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst ([Immigration and Naturalization service] IND). These women want to settle themselves as an independent entrepreneur, but the IND doesn’t believe that they are truly independent. That’s why the IND refused a residence permit two times. According to investigator H. Florie of the Sfinx-team that investigated women trafficking on the Wallen of Amsterdam, most Eastern European prostitutes come with false documents to the Netherlands. “The girls are mostly lowly educated and naive and are an easy prey for women traffickers. They often have debts, because they have to pay back the traffickers for a false passport and the journey to the Netherlands”, so says Florie.

According to the policeman it is difficult to gather evidence against the women traffickers because many victims don’t dare to make a statement [to the police]. “Not only the women themselves are threatened, but also their family members abroad’, says Florie. Also his superior, chief commissioner T. Eeken, doubts if the women are truly working indendently. According to him they almost never have money, while they nevertheless earn five hundred to thousand guilders per day. Above all there are always ‘protectors’ in the neighbourhood according to Eeken. That’s why he assumes that the prostitutes have to hand over their earnings.

From the archives of the the Volkskrant:

Hoerenbeleid Amsterdam bevordert vrouwenhandel [Whore policy Amsterdam encourages women trafficking]

Unknown, Weert Schenk

Published on February 21th 1998

The judge has helped the ‘kastenbazen’ [window brothel owners] a hand. In July last years the court in The Hague decided that window prostitutes from countries with whom the European Union has an association treaty, like Poland, the Czech Republic and Slowakia, are allowed to work here. They get a residence permit if they can prove that they are independent entrepreneurs.

Since then the Wallen have been flooded with Eastern European women with a passport which is false or not. For insiders it is clear that they are not working independently. They can see that by the cars which each drop three to four women on the working address. In front of the houses almost constantly foreign men (Turks, Yugoslavs and Albanians) stand guard.

Field workers assume that the guards of the women are ‘errand boys’ of a criminal network. The women, they say, didn’t come to Amsterdam on their own accord, but are being put to work. According to the foundation The Red Thread, who look after the interests of prostitutes, the Eastern European women work for the ‘humiliatingly low’ rate of 35 guilders. That forces the Dutch women to work cheaper.

The suspicion that te women are being exploited, agrees closely with the results of a recent police investigation. Eastern European criminals yearly bring approximately two thousand prostitutes to the Netherlands. The women are being trafficking for sums between five hundred and ten thousand guilders.

Behind the many Nigerian and Ghanian women also a criminal organization is suspected. They own good Itialian and Greek documents, or false ones which are hardly distinguishable from real. An additional problem is that these women change their appearance daily with the help of wigs. The police can only determine the validity of the passport with great difficulty.

From the archives of nrc:

Groter aantal prostituees Oost-Europa [Bigger number of prostitutes Eastern Europe]

By one of our editors

Tuesday March 6th 2001

Amsterdam, March 6th. “The number of prostitutes on the tippelzone on the Theemsweg in Amsterdam has strongly risen during the last year. From the numbers it arises that especially the number of Eastern European women has increased.

Recently mayor Cohen stated that the tippelzone is “chock full”. Numbers from the Begeleidingscommissie Tippelzone [guidance commission tolerance zone] acknowledge this. The numbers are based on the numbers of visitors in the Huiskamer [Living Room], the reception centre for the prostitution. This rised from on average 65 to 78. The number of Eastern European women that evening rose from 6 in 1997 to 32 in the year 2000.

Eastern European women mostly work with a pimp and the suspicion is that many of them are the victim of women trafficking. “We actually know for certain that often you can speak of a strong pressure on these women. We also suspect that they are put to work throughout the whole of Europe”, so says Jaap Fransman, manager of HVO-Querido, the foundation who runs the Huiskamer.

South-American women, until now the majority on the tippelzone, mostly work independently. They are now being ‘pushed aside’ by Eastern European, and to a lesser extent, African women.

From the archives of nrc:

Bordelen worstelen met gedoogbeleid [Brothels are struggling with policy of tolerance]

By our editor Anneke Visser

Thursday November 7th 1996

Brothel owners on de Wallen in Amsterdam are struggling with the harsh treatment of their business by the municipality. They fear that illegal prostitutes are chased to the streets because of that.

(…)

The objection of the brothel owners that because of the conduct of Patijn the Illegal prostitutes are sent to the street, is warded off by the municipality with the argument that these women are now no less than the prisoners of the brothel owners being meant. “They must hand over their passports and are often unable to move freely”, so says a spokesperson. Badoux on his turn: “That is rude. The municipality is itself responsible for this practice. Sometimes the brothel owners withhold passports, because they are to suffer when the women can’t identify themselves.”

Blast from the past

I wanted to inform you people about my latest excavations in the archives of Dutch newspapers. This following article (of which parts are translated by me) is about prostitution in Dutch province of Limburg in the nineties. Unfortunately the articles doesn’t contain quotation marks, I had to add them to make it more readable. The article contains the usual stunning admissions. And also unfortunately, it contains nothing new. Notice though, that in the article Russian women reportedly work with forged Polish passports. Is that the country where all the many Polish prostitutes in the Netherlands come from?

From the archives of the Dutch newspaper nrc.

Pezen voor je leven; Vrouwenhandel neemt toe, vooral vanuit Oost-Europa [prostituting for your life; Women trafficking increases, especially from Eastern Europe]

Alfred van Cleef

June 17th, 1995

(...)

It often occurs that a foreign prostitute must hand over half or more of her income to a ‘boyfriend’ or protector. Otten [club owner of Lovers Lane, on the rijksweg in Mook]: [“]many club owners would rather have girls with a pimp. Because they work at least. I they don’t feel like it, they get a punch, that’s how it is.[“] He himself doesn’t want pimps over the floor. [“]You just know what kind of blokes they are, it emanates from their jaws. Say it yourself, how many decent pimps are there now? When my girls are under thumb of a pimp, she goes out. Indefinitely. Yet it is easy to always blame the blokes. Look, you have three categories of girls: clever, dumb and extremely dumb. Yet I lately had experienced that one of the girls finally had gotten rid of such a bloke. A week later she nevertheless goes back to him and he grabs that girly by the throat. That girl had to leave.[“]

(...)

For a long time prostitution is no longer concentrated in the big cities. In Northern Limburg alone there are 58 registered brothels, against 63 in Amsterdam, so says project leader J.H. Hermans of the team Onderzoek Mensenhandel [Investigation Human Trafficking] of the regional police Limburg-Noord. [“]And then I don’t even talk about escort services, window prostitutes, housewives, street prostitutes and gays.” Hermans’ team performs aimed raids in brothels in Limburg of which there is a suspicion that women trafficking is at issue there. What he encounters during those raids he calls extremely alarming. [“]I dare to assert that seventy percent of the prostitutes in Northern Limburg are victims of women trafficking. Girls who have been put into the trunk while being drugged, minors Russian women with forged Polish passports.[“]

In many clubs the prostitutes are totally isolated according to Hermans. [“?”]They live there internally: sometimes with twenty women in one building with only six rooms, where they also must receive their clients. They only speak a Lithuanian dialect or Slovakian, are never allowed to go outside, are being relocated continuously and must work permanently, during menstruation or not. During illness they are simply dumped, beat it. They are treated like cattle, as utensils. The majority are with gigantic debts. The payment of their so-called visa and the transport. I have only one word for this: slavery.[“]

(...)

Roughly twenty women made a report of women trafficking in the case against the Dutchman H.B., who in the meantime is in a Czech cell. ‘The case H.B.’ is jewel of the stable of Hermans and his team. H.B., former owner of sex club Paradiso in Haelen in Limburg, is suspected of recruiting many dozens of women from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with as destination brothels in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Between nose and lips Hermans slips the words that H.B. was vice-chairman of the Vereniging van Exploitanten van Relaxhuizen. Chairman Klein Beekman: [“]No vice-chairman, but committee member. That’s right. Now he has been expelled. H.B. was also an ex-cop[“], Klein Beekman strikes the ball back. Which is confirmed [that H.B. was a cop] by the regional police Limburg-Noord. [”]But that was a long time ago[“], says the spokesperson.

Montly reports

Comensha (former Foundation Against Trafficking in Women) has released monthly reports: over here (see also an older post about the same subject)

maandrapportage augustus
maandrapportage januari-juli 2009
maandrapportage januari-juni 2009
maandrapportage januari-mei 2009

Nowadays they also include victims from other sectors of prostitution. There are lots of men who are exploited. Funny that they treat the victims as one group, making comparisons over the years very difficult and trivializing the particular degradation of being forced to work in the sex industry.

Plus ...... they have information about specific sectors where prostitutes are forced to work. It is interesting to see that until July forced prostitution in clubs and privéhuizen was less prevalent compared to window prostitution it seemed. Then suddenly in August the clubs and privéhuizen overtake window prostitution. It shows how tricky numbers are. What is also still striking is the large number of Dutch victims.

For many victims the type of place/brothel where they worked is unknown. Many have been forced to work in prostitution, but it is not known where. Also men have been forced to prostitute (8 men between January-August 2009). Using the August report, of the 402 women who are victims of human trafficing it is known that:
113 where forced in prostitution but it is not known what type.
25 in a brothel/club.
21 in window prostitution.
13 as an escort.
9 in street prostitution.
2 in a massage parlour.
2 in a privéhuis

Some people have worked in multiple sectors. Also, there are other types of labour where victims have been forced to work (but truely, I'm not so interested in that yet, the food on my plate is still just food, the house where I live in is still just another house). Men are especially forced to work as construction workers, in agriculture and in horticulture. The same is true for women, but women are also forced to work in privately-owned houses, I guess as housekeepers.

And ..... for something completely different, it seems that the volkskrant and nrc have opened up their archives. I found some completely new stuff there. I will point some of that out in the future. Actually the information is not new, basically it reconfirms what we already now.

But to give a preview:
Liever de hoer spelen dan land uit (Victor Lebesque, May 28th 2001)
This article in the Volkskrant describes Romanian women who were forced to prostitute in the sex club Ria on the Overtoom in Amsterdam. That is a total revelation to me because I always assumed that this was one of the better brothels. Actually this was what the anthropologist Paul van Gelder told me. I actually also read this years ago I guess in the weekly magazine Aktueel. The madam is interviewed and she told that she carefully screens the women who want to work in the club. She even refused women who had been sexually abused.

It seems that I got rid of another mirage in my head.

review: Sonia Rossi

Main

I saw a Dutch translation of Sonia Rossi’s book ‘Fucking Berlin : Studentin und Teilzeit-Hure’ (2008) in the bookstore. Sonia Rossi (nickname) is an Italian immigrant who worked in prostitution a couple of years ago. She did that to finance her mathematics study and her unemployed boyfriend, and later also her baby. She mostly worked in Berlin but also made some trips to brothels in other parts in Germany. Her story is very interesting and detailed, she probably also kept a diary during that period.

Usually I only buy the books about prostitution in the Netherlands. But Berlin is close and it would be good comparison material. I thought: how would it be in this part of the world? Obviously I was especially interested in forced prostitution. Horror stories are easy to find about Dutch prostitution, and even about the areas in Germany bordering the Netherlands, but how would it be in other parts of Germany?

What I understand after reading her book is that there are many Eastern European women working in Germany. Many Russian women, but also Hungarians, Romanians, Estonians etc….. To my surprise she doesn’t mention forced prostitution very often. She first heard about it in a club in Berlin from an Estonian woman called Vera who was forced in prostitution during a period of three years starting from the age of fifteen. She also worked in the Netherlands. According to Vera the prisons in the Netherlands are good compared to other countries. Sonia was surprised by Vera’s story because she thought human trafficking was something of the past.

Furthermore she encountered two women in a club in Freiburg, one Romanian and one German, who were rumoured to be exploited by their boyfriends, according to a Russian prostitute called Natascha. Basically these women handed over all their earnings to their boyfriends. Then Sonia explains that many Russian prostitutes tell a story like this: “Becoming pregnant on their eighteenth birthday, married, divorced after a year, ended up in Germany via a marriage of convenience, left their child with grandma in Russia and eventually ended up in prostitution to be able to send enough money back home.” Perhaps I’m prejudiced, but I guess that the women (or Sonia) left out the debt bondage part of the story, because they couldn’t pay for the convenience marriage at first.

And for the rest, there’s a multi-story indoor window prostitution brothel where a young Romanian transvestite man was pimped by his mother from the age of fifteen. He handed over all his earning to her. Also his sister had worked in that brothel.

And really that’s it. As for the rest, the book doesn’t paint a good picture of prostitution. For instance, the club in Freiburg forbade the women to leave the premise. And drugs were used by all the women in that club, except two. As for the clients in general, Sonia explains that many times she has to keep the clients from groping her and putting their fingers in her anus or vagina. Sonia also worked in a brothel in Berlin with a Turkish clientele who treated her like a peace of meat. And the prices are extremely low in Berlin, 20 Euros is not unusual. It must be added by me that in the Netherlands the prices aren’t high either. I calculated that you basically pay 2 Euros per minute. You could go to very luxurious looking brothels in the Netherlands paying only 80 Euros for half an hour of sex.

On the other hand not all is bad. Sonia explains that she actually does enjoy the sex with clients sometimes. And Vera saw it like this: “20 percent of the guests were nice, 40 percent were repulsive, and the rest real assholes”. Perhaps that offers an explanation to why prostitutes could have so different views about their jobs: many are ebullient about it while others absolutely hate it. If you belief Sonia and Vera, then both views are right in a sense; perhaps some prostitutes see the glass as half full, they ignore the bad sides, and others prostitutes see the glass half empty and aren’t impressed by the nicer clients.

BTW: Probably Sonia Rossi is not really Italian. She appeared in the Dutch TV show ‘Spuiten en slikken’ and her accent is more like Eastern European. I would place a bet on Romania, perhaps Bulgaria. And there is no English translation of the book which is originally in German.

review: Jody Peters

Main

Now a new review of mine of the book:
“Een haar per dag, dertig maanden in de prostitutie” [A hair a day, thirty months in prostitution] by Jody Peters and Michiel Hegener (1988)

Jody Peters [nickname] is a Dutch woman (Michiel Hegener is the ghostwriter) who has been coerced to work in prostitution (in the the Netherlands) by a pimp starting from approximately 19 years of age, using the same old romantic techniques: first manipulating her to work in prostitution voluntarily, then steadily using more violence. As a child she was abused by a paedophile. She escaped with the help of an American client whom she falled in love with (he also with her).

At first she worked in clubs, then behind windows. It is unclear when this took place, but I guess during the end of the seventies or the beginning of the early nineties. This is a book I didn’t know existed but I coincidentally stumbled upon it in a library.

My eyes opened, closed and are now opening again. But still a voice within me still says that her story is just an exception. But hey, perhaps I can convert Laura. Have you all heard about Laura?

Laura is dreaming (and I'm just gossiping, I still have a concrete head).

Okay some translated quotes from the Dutch book (my eyes are closing, almost sleeping). I also selected some of these quotes because in my opinion it proves that
1. There are ways to beat up a woman without seeing bruises.
2. Prostitutes lie towards the police and the police about working voluntary or not (they probably also lie to researchers).

Below are only quotes:
(page 60) He hit me everywhere where he could hit me without lowering my market value – in my face only when I had a day off in front of me to let the welts fade away.

(page 72-73) A couple of weeks after I came to work in the Applegarden [not the real name of the club], two police officers of the vice police came by for a talk with each of the newly hired girls – except for the illegal girls: they quickly disappeared into the dressing-room. In a separate little room I was allowed to give answers to: ‘Do you do this work voluntarily?’ and: ‘Do you feel well here?’
Of course I did it voluntarily, and obviously I liked it. The idea to tell my life story to two perfect strangers was not appealing. Because of their questions the police officers painfully confirmed that I was a prostitute – much more than the clients, they [the clients] simply close their eyes to that. This was the vice police, the police for whores. It was humiliating like this already. If I said: ‘No, I don’t work voluntarily at all and I’m beaten up weekly’, it would be even more humiliating. And it wouldn’t be without effect: everything, my whole life would come into motion and I would be at the mercy of the unlimited rage of Carlos. If I would or wouldn’t tell it to the police, it wouldn’t make a difference, because no protection around the world was big enough to protect me against my pimp.
Within five minutes the conversation was over. If there unexpectedly would be any problems, they said kindly, I could always knock on their door, they would help me in any case. And I thought: Nobody could help me in the situation where I’m in now.

(page 123) To her [another prostitute] and several other girls I confided how Carlos treated me and they told me about their pimps. Behind the window next to me a divorced woman worked for a while who had a son as pimp. When it was necessary, he also battered her - once even while I was there.
There were also pimps who had their girls so well under their thumb with psychological threats and manipulations, that they didn't need to batter. With the pimps who did, they had in common that they meant much or even everything to their girl. When you have nothing else at all, you even care about someone who leeches on you, intimidates you and maltreats you. I found out that nearly each girl in the [window prostitution] street did have a pimp to whom they had to hand over her money.

(page 125) Inevitably my own life came up for discussion every now and then, and to all clients, everybody, I lied. Everybody got to hear a version of the becoming-rich-quickly-in-prostitution-story that nearly all girls tell: I did this a couple of years, everything went on the bank account, and after that I would never had money troubles again. I would rather tell that than that I had already let me bullyrag me for two years by a psychopath who gambled away all my money or handed it out to his friends, and who beat me black and blue weekly because I never made enough money. Clients who saw me as a keen business lady who had it all arranged well, respected me more. To achieve that I gladly lied. It was the only respect that I could get.

(page 150) [Jody falls in love with a John and can't stand the clients anymore] Now only after two and a half years in prostitution, it got through me how inhumane my work was. I had allowed a couple of thousand perfect strangers to do the most intimate things to me, without impressing me.

(page 165) I wanted to write this book for a very long time because in my opinion there are in general large misunderstandings about prostitution. The image of the Happy Hooker that many have of prostitutes, for example. If feel this image is damaging: it hushes up the role of pimps, the exploitation and the gross physical abuse which is used to keep a large majority of the prostitutes in their grip. In the years that I was in prostitution myself, I never encountered a Happy Hooker.
The world of prostitution is still opaque and dark. Information to the outside world is still impeded – in the first place by pimp-intimidation, but also because many prostitutes themselves have difficulties recognizing the dreadful situation where they are in. The result is that often there are criminal and inhumane thing happening of which the rest of society has no knowledge.
With the help of Michiel Hegener I hope to have compiled a book that will open the eyes of many people to the pure slavery which prostitution is in most cases.

review: Sarah Forsyth

Main

I was about the write a short review about Sarah Forsyth’s book ‘Slave Girl – I was an ordinary British girl. I was kidnapped and sold into sex slavery. This is my horrific true story’. Sarah Forsyth was sort of kidnapped to the Netherlands. The stereotypical story of having been promised to work as a nanny but then forced to work in a window brothel on de Wallen in Amsterdam (Goldbergersteeg). This happened around 1995.

Sarah was kidnapped by a British pimp called John Reece and his girlfriend Sally who was also forced in prostitution. Eventually she was sold on to a Yugoslav pimp who at the end suddenly fled because he feared he was going to get arrested. Sarah could escape.

Her story actually doesn’t surprise me. There have been so many bad stories already about the RLD in Amsterdam. It sounds completely plausible.

She also describes the organization of de Wallen. Everything is there: the Turks, the Moroccans, the Yugoslavs. And aside of that smaller pimps like John Reece. He had some English women working for him. And some Eastern European and Thai girls (page 120-121). Sally describes that John Reece brings in women from all over Britain (page 71). Some he sells to other pimps, others he keeps for himself. Sally describes that most of them are rough and have worked in prostitution before. But he also wanted an innocent girl, a girl who has never worked as a prostitute. This is interesting because it turns out there’s also a trade of prostitutes from Britain to the mainland of Europe. And it also confirms another observation that most prostitutes who are trafficked know that they will be working in prostitution, or already work in prostitution.

At one point Sarah was approached by two Dutch vice cops (page 171-174). A man and a woman. She didn’t trust them. Why? She feared that they were some of her Yugoslav pimp’s stooges. He regularly sent in new members of his gang to talk to the girls and pretend to be members of a special police force. According to Sarah many policeman were on the payroll of this pimp. At one point she was even raped by seven policemen who entered her window (see also pages 153-154).

Corruption on de Wallen is also confirmed in the book by Jos Verlaan ‘Chaos aan de amstel’ (1999).
His book also got information from the internal police report ‘Rood licht, valse hoop’ [Red Light, False Hope] (Regiopolitie Amsterdam-Amstelland wijkteam Warmoestraat, 'Rood licht, valse hoop', October 1995). It reveals that at least 27 networks of women traffickers operated on de Wallen plus an extensive network of street pimps. read:
Na legalisering ging seksbranche verder ondergronds (Jos verlaan, August 22th 2008)

What Sarah says about not trusting the police is important and it gives a possible explanation why prostitutes rarely say to researchers (or police inspectors) that they are forced. From the point of view the researchers could be the helpers of the pimps. It also means if a client asks to a prostitute if she’s forced to do this (as I recently did) that this could be downright intimidating to her. The clients could be one of the stooges from her point of view, a way to test her allegiance.

The most striking feature of the book is the murder on the Thai prostitute Par (page 168). At one point Sarah and Par were being raped while they were also being filmed. She worked for the Yugoslav pimp at that time. At one point somebody shot Par through the head. This is actually the first case in the Netherlands where I read of where a prostitute is so clearly killed by a pimp. There are cases where prostitutes simply disappear, dead bodies are found or where prostitutes die under mysterious circumstances. But it was never definitely proven that this was done by a pimp. Usually it was a client. Obviously Par is just an anonymous prostitute who isn’t missed by anybody. To make her disappear doesn’t ring any alarms. That means that the real list of dead prostitutes is longer.

Sarah also speaks very negatively of punters (pages 100, 115-117). That will scare me off for a while. At this moment I’m in an all-the-prostitutes-are-forced phase again. I wonder how long that will take. I have switched position so very often during the years.

There are no excuses anymore.

"And when it was over , and after I had done as Sally had told me with the condom, he stood up, carefully put on his clothes and simply said ‘thanks’. Then he was gone.
I sat on the bed, curtains still closed, in a state of complete shock: relieved beyond belief that it was over but still incapable of understanding what had really just happened. And why did he say ‘thanks’ – as if I had done him some small favour that could be repaid by a simple word of empty gratitude? Thanks. For what? For letting you rape me? – for that was surely what it was. Thank you?" (from page 100)

review: David Farer

Main

By accident I stumbled upon a book I have totally overlooked for years. It comes in multiple versions of which the earliest is from 1995. The writer is David Farer who has lived in the brothels of Jan Bik to interview prostitutes. He also worked as a manager in the brothels.

I have a Dutch version named “Bordeellevens” [brothel lives] (1995) and a more recent English version called “Games prostitutes play – prostitution and child abuse“ (2008). The two versions differ slightly. Names are different, Marijke in the Dutch version is Maria in the English. And there are prostitutes described in one book which are not described in the other, and vice versa. The English book contains some extra chapters with comments.

In the books he explains that he is a free-lancer who writes about elderly pilots. One of the pilots who was interviewed said that if David could interview pilots he could also interview prostitutes in a particular brothel that the pilot visited when he is in Amsterdam. Jan Bik, the brothel owner, thought that was a good idea. At the end David Farer spent a long time in these brothels. In the books he says for years. He is vague about when this actually happened but probably it is during the early nineties.

Anyway. This book is important. It is funny that after reading so much about prostitution in the Netherlands that this information in this book strikes me as a complete surprise. During last years I actually slowly began to accept the idea that forced prostitution among Dutch prostitutes largely takes place in window prostitution, and that this is especially related to young Dutch prostitutes. Several sources point this out. Often when you read about these cases (of Dutch forced prostitutes) this mostly takes place in window prostitution, and you have to take in mind that only a relatively small segment of Dutch prostitutes work behind windows. Secondly, also Ine Vanwesenbeeck noted that among the predominantly Dutch prostitutes she interviewed at the end of the eighties, that Dutch window prostitutes are much more often subjected to violence by ‘acquaintances’ than those in clubs and privéhuizen. I explain this further in my post about Dutch prostitutes:
this link here

You know the trick? Visit an older Dutch prostitutes and avoid window and street prostitution. Or visit perhaps a Latin American prostitute.

Now that I read the book by David Farer, I don’t know it anymore. I quote some of his stuff from page 392 and 393 of his English book:

Most prostitutes in permanent relationships have men who dominate, beat, belittle, insult, and attack them. Even women who dominate clients, other prostitutes, and managers at the brothel go home to men like Valerie’s boyfriend or worse. Valerie's man eventually hospitalized her, but she defended the creature even after the hospital released her.

These boyfriends are men whom the women choose for emotional reasons of their own.
Although perfectly dependent on the women, these men were cruel to them. They played no role in the women's professional lives. Many people call such men pimps, although they were not pimps in the sense of men who found their women customers and "managed" their careers as prostitutes. They had not pushed the women into prostitution. The men had no control over the women whatever, apart from that which the women gave them. Examples abound, but that which comes to mind first was when I spent hours and days explaining to a prostitute that she could and should get rid of her abusive boyfriend and find a nicer one who did not beat her up every night. She then very simply went home, packed his suitcase, drove him to a hotel, and gave him some money.
The next day she told me to pack my books and throwaway my clothes, Because she would drive by my home to pick me up. As my jaw bounced off the floor, the others took her aside and explained to her that David had not intended to apply for a position as her new pimp. She then drove to the hotel where she had deposited her old pimp and took him home. He celebrated their reunion by beating her unconscious that night.

Here is yet another example of my naiveté in intervening in situations that were over my head, and in which I went into battle armed with good intentions, but little sense.

The Latin American prostitute Catalina explains in the Dutch version (page 98):

In my opinion the Dutch prostitutes are very peculiar. They are not healthy. Many of them are addicted to drugs. I think they come from bad families. They make so much money, but they squander it to drugs and bad [boy]friends who beat them. I see them come in, fully covered with bruises.

Obviously I’m aware of some prostitutes who have said that prostitutes in general are forced in the brothels, but perhaps these were isolated cases. Such a recent case is of Kelly de Heer who said in the Dutch program ‘Pauw en Witteman’ (December 19th 2008), who worked in the clubs ‘Boobs and Booties’ in Nijmegen and in the ‘Club Reeperbahn’ in Breda. In the interview she says that ‘I will tell you and it sounds really stupid, but behind 9 out of 10 women there is a man behind it.’

However the world-famous blogger Jeanette who was a prostitute in the mid nineties and who said many prostitutes were forced to do this then, has recently re-entered her old job again, and now says that forced prostitution has substantially decreased (she has also worked as a madam in the meantime so maybe that’s an explanation).

So, the great puzzle continues.

I’m aware that David’s story is relatively old and things could have changed. But, you never know. What also surprised me is that some of the 30-plus prostitutes (like Valerie) have abusive husbands.

David also found that nearly all prostitutes have been sexually abused, mostly by their fathers. Actually, all the horrendous stereotypes of prostitutes are reinforced. He describes prostitutes as genuinely heavily traumatized women who perpetuate the trauma by working in prostitution and becoming romantically involved with violent men, often criminals. While actually more recent reports suggest that prostitutes are not more traumatized than women and men in general (I mean the sociale positie van prostituees-reports which you can all find via google). David describes that almost all prostitutes smoke. Many are on coke.

Well, perhaps I should return to my old conclusion which I drew that nearly all prostitutes are forced. The foreign as well as the Dutch, the indoor as well as the outdoor, the window prostitutes as well as those in clubs, the young as well as the old…..

MEN AROUND THE WORLD UNITE!!!!!

NEVER VISIT PROSTITUTES!!!!!

IT IS ABUSE!!!!!

So that was my book review about David.

More book reviews to come. Have you all read ‘Fucking Berlin’ by Sonia Rossi from Italy (actually Romania I guess). And obviously ‘Slave Girl’ by Sarah Forsyth, the English girl who was forced on de Wallen in Amsterdam around 1995.

Crusader

Main

There is a new book out with several contributions:
Prostitution and Human Trafficking: Focus on Clients (2008, edited by: by Andrea Di Nicola, Andrea Cauduro, Marco Lombardi, Paolo Ruspini)

One of the contributions is:
The Flesh is Weak, the Spirit Even Weaker - Clients and Trafficked Women in the Netherlands (by Damián Zaitch and Richard Staring)

Actually I took part in that research, and, in that research punter-forums have been analyzed where obviously I took part in.

I'm described by Zaitch and Staring as a 'fanatic moral crusader and anti-women trafficking campaigner'. Thank you, couldn't they have used more neutral words. Like 'entrepreneur' instead of 'crusader'? Or 'driven'/'enthousiastic' instead of 'fanatic'? Crusader and fanatic sound so negative.

Perhaps they are right, I'm overdoing it.

They don't have a positive attitude about clients anyway. The clients are uninterested, often deny that there are problems in prostitution and if they (the clients) do admit that there are problems, they say they don't encounter those particular (forced) prostitutes or can(not) make the distinction (between forced and voluntary). And then there are the 'moral crusaders' like me who say how bad the others are.

Furthermore they draw the worrying conclusion that the fact that prostitution is now legal in the Netherlands creates a false sense of security among clients of prostitutes because the brothels are now supposed to be free of abuse because they are supervised. Which the brothels obviously are not (free of abuse).

Anyway, lately I was thinking how to visit a prostitute again (after my latest impulsive visit to one). I thought, perhaps I could visit one of the women who post on hookers.nl. They couldn't be forced aren't they?

Well, anyway, three years ago I was invited by one of the prostitutes (who also post on hookers.nl and with whom I also had discussions) to visit her at her home. She then lived with her (much older) husband who also operates an escort service. And I came. It was her idea, to him it was a surprise. They were friendly people. She wanted to show me that there are also good escort operators. I also spoke with another (much older) prostitute there, who grew up on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam (Red Light District).

We discussed with the four/five/six/seven (there were other people present, including children) of us how to separate the forced from the voluntary prostitutes. The other (older) prostitute who worked for the agency was of the opinion that if the prostitute wants to leave her pimp she could easily do that, just kill him in his sleep. In her opinion the women had a sadomasochistic relationship with their pimps. Own fault. Except maybe for the foreign women. She confirmed that most prostitutes have pimps, but they are not forced, she explained that pimps have multiple women in their stable and he turns them against each other. She was also a madam in the past. She said she was the Robin Hood because she gave the debt-bonded prostitutes free meals. But she was a nice lady anyway (she also believes in the paranormal).

A lively discussion arose. The woman who had invited me and I were of the opinion that forced prostitution was really a problem. The older woman believed it was not. The husband had his own opinions, he didn't believe it was really possible to separate forced from voluntary prostitution. The woman who invited me said that force and voluntariness lie very close to each other. She herself said that she enjoyed her work and that she enjoys sex.

That was a very special day.

Anyway, to come back to now; she came back on the hookers.nl forum under another name and now says that she was violently forced by her husband to work in prostitution for 9 year. She met him when she 15 years old. He was like a father for her, but he saw her as a money-well without a bottom. He persuaded her to break with her family and friends which caused her to be a puppet in his hands. If she didn't wanted to have sex with clients he beated and threatened her again and again. He almost killed her own self. She now says that she didn't enjoy her work and that she probably was a good actress because clients called her a 'girlfriend experience'. At the end she contemplated to kill her husband. She left him 2 years go.

I wish her good luck.

Well, for me that means that I'm now back again where I originally started.

Thinking back of it, I also chatted with another prostitute on hookers.nl a while back, who on the forum says that she has the coolest job in the world but personally said to me that clients treat her like a piece of meat with a hole in it, the nicer clients make the job nice. A view reflected by Sonia Rossi who wrote the book Fucking Berlin about her experiences in prostitution in the German capital. According to her, there are nice clients, but most are evil assholes who just grab, grope and put fingers in orifices without announcement. And it doesn't matter in what kind of establishment a prostitute works.

Beats me why many researched/interviewed prostitutes say they enjoy their work. Even many prostitutes on their own Dutch forum say that they describe the sex with their clients as pleasant. That's another paradox. Perhaps they see the glass as half full?

Perhaps it is better just to find a girlfriend or use my imagination (and my hand).

A dark world

Main

Now, an article about Thérèse van der Helm who works for the P&G292 (Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 292), an information centre for prostitutes near the RLD in Amsterdam. Dark pictures again!, too easy. I'm really thinking about posting positive articles about prostitutes. Remember! Prostitution doesn't cause (post traumatic) stress (disorder). And my head is still made of concrete.

http://www.pg292.nl/pers.html
http://www.prostitutie.nl/scripts/thema/leesmeer1.php?id=124

Een duistere wereld vol geheimen [A dark World full of secrets]
over het veldwerk [about the fieldwork] GGD Vizier november 2008

by Claudia Plantinga

(...)

We walk through an alley and Therese greets the girls behind the windows. Every now and then she has a chat with them and informs if everything goes well. The alley is all window with many beautiful young dolled-up girls who stand behind it or sit on a bar stool.

Therese: Because we know many women now, they let us inside and we can keep an eye on their situation a little. We offer free services and they can go to us anonymously. We can enter almost everywhere. First it is NO!, and the door stays closed. When I call Doctor! The door does go open and we are allowed in.

Belly ache

Therese sees a girl that she doesn’t know and asks if we can come inside for a while. We are invited, although there’s lots of suspicion. Behind this window three young girls work who only speak Hungarian. One of the reasons that Betty, a Hungarian instructor, also comes along when the P&G team visits this alley. Therese gives safe sex information and information about the morning after pill. The new prostitutes get a package of condoms, sponges and information about the P&G. One of the girls still wants to ask some questions. We enter her work room.

Therese and Betty take place on the bed complete with large mirror and red lighting. The girl, 18 years old and very fragile, waveringly begins her story. She works for two weeks on de Wallen now and has lots of belly ache during her work. Therese keeps asking questions, with the help of Betty as interpreter. The girl tells that she works seven days a week and has on average ten to twenty clients per day. Therese tells that her body can’t handle that. She takes as an example that when you continuously receive punches on the same area on your arm, these also become very painful and swollen. She advises this girl to work less but she doesn’t want to know anything of this. To make the work less difficult for her Therese gives her advises with a dildo as example. She emphasizes that the girl is the boss of her body and not the client!

Three abortions

Therese wants to know why she works so much, if she has problems and if she works for somebody or is forced. The girl doesn’t really answer her questions. She tells that she works voluntarily and wants to go back once and for all to Hungary when it's Christmas. The money that she earns is for her mother. In passing she tells that she underwent three abortions in Hungary. Therese says that she readily wants to make an appointment with her and she agreed to it. We said goodbye to this bewildered girl. I feel very sorry for her.

Very thin

I also have the feeling that nobody trusts each other, a dark world full of secrets. The girls also certainly don’t show the back of their tongue. I’m deeply shocked about the situation where these girls are in. These really are girls and some I estimate to be younger than 18.

Every one of them beautiful but almost all very skinny and many with a bad set of teeth. According to Therese they live on junkfood, red bull and cola. The men who move slowly alongside the windows I don’t understand. What a strange world. I realize at the same time that it is also a matter of demand and supply…

Continue to work during pregnancy

Therese: In this alley work Hungarian women; they all have a pimp. Mostly they are victim of a criminal network where they are being forced to work in prostitution. In the Netherlands pimping is illegal by law. Therese continues her story: What I find very poignant is a prostitute who has become pregnant of a client. Now that she is too late for an abortion she keeps on working until the eight month of the pregnancy. There is no law which prohibits this. And after the delivery she gives the child away for adoption…

(...)

Like a doll

Main

It still is so easy to bash prostitutes. Not so difficult to paint a bleak picture. But still 'consensual' as always. This time a story by a former Czech prostitute (still Czech) who started when she was 19. She is gypsy. And wanted to make money in prostitution to pay back for some lost family land and a burnt-downfarm where here family lives. She wants to start a foundation against pimps. She also speaks about other Eastern European prostitutes. And I have a concrete head. Some Dutch language articles:

Article in De Pers
Als popje in Etalage [Like a doll in display window]
By Merel van Leeuwen
May 6th 2009

(...)

This 32-year old Czech woman consciously chose in the midst of the nineties for a life behind the window. She thought that she could fend for herself without a boyfriend or pimp, but was financially exploited by a Dutch man with whom she started a relationship. Only, she realized that much later.

Last year she stepped out of prostitution. Her professional life took place behind the windows of Mainz, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Alkmaar. She teaches herself to speak Dutch by watching Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden and other Dutch soaps. Still one year and then she has finished her education to become a haematologist. She is busy searching for a job and puts herself forward as a promoter of prostitutes on the Achterdam.

(…)

Maria managed to maintain herself between the girls in Amsterdam. She rented a room in the Gordijnensteeg and as one of the last women from Eastern Europe she acquires a temporary residence status without problems. For years she works as an independent entrepreneur and so-called white illegal, until she gets a residence permit in 2005. As one of the few in Amsterdam Maria had no pimp.

’I always had a big mouth about that they wouldn’t get me, but it did happen nevertheless, so stupid. On one evening a girl was robbed, after which a boy of the security offered me to look after my belongings. So I gave him my bag, with the car credentials, my keys, passport. At the end of the day I asked my belongings back. That will cost you a thousand guilders, he then said. Screw it, I thought and I left without my belongings. But yes, I must have them back. A day later I said I would pay after all. But then it was raised to a thousand guilders per item, and I started to pay. Another boy of the security heard the story and wanted to solve it for me, but then I had to pay five thousand guilders to the first boy. I didn’t have it, but he wanted to lend it to me. He said: I’ll help you. Do you feel it coming?’ Maria laughs.

The boy who ‘helps’ her; convinces her to move in with him in Hoofddorp and they start a relationship. Five years later she finds out that she has been terribly deceived. All the money she earned, she gave that to him. For their future, what he fooled her into believing. The couple bought two privéhuizen [brothels] from her money, in Leiden and Schiedam. Maria’s rescue is that her boyfriend, a Dutch kamper [former caravan dweller], ‘forgets’ to pay taxes, after which the police performs a raid in 2000 and arrests him.

’But I stayed loyal towards him. I kept my mouth shut towards the police, because he has also helped me. Very stupid, so crooked, because he was a bastard. But when I heard all the terrible stories of other girls, I found I wasn’t in such a bad position. He didn’t batter me, I had my own car, I could do what I liked. The first year in prison I even sent him 50 euros weekly.’ Maria laughs again.

(…)

Maria even calls the transition period between the guilder and the euro a golden period, because everybody wanted to rid themselves of their black market money. But because of the arrival of mainly Bulgarian girls the prices have dropped drastically last years. When previously the girls mutually agreed not to work under a certain price, the newcomers don’t bother about that at all and do it for less.

’Those girls from the countryside in Eastern Europe know that they don’t come here to work in the catering industry or as an au-pair. But prostitute here is still always a better life than on the countryside there. They see their pimp as their boyfriend. He arranges a house and does nice things with her, but such a girl pays tremendous amounts of money for that. They feel special, chosen by such a boy and feel a great loyalty towards him. But they don’t realize that they could be much better off without him.’

(…)

article in Noord Hollands Dagblad
Van peeskamer naar collegezaal [from window brothel to lecture hall]
February 13th 2009

(...)

Actually she wanted to persist for one other year. To ‘pezen’ [prostitute] for a while until she has finished her study haematology. But because of ‘personal circumstances’ – she didn’t want to reveal more – she stopped in Alkmaar with her work behind the windows. “In Utrecht there was no place anymore, Amsterdam I find it much too crowded with all these tourists. I tried it for a while in The Hague. Speaking about dangerous… I will nééver go their again.”

Good news

I lately wondered, I mostly put negative news on my blog about prostitution in the Netherlands. As if I try to paint the situation here as bleakly as possible. Well, hearing about the good news in the Singel area in Amsterdam (sorry however for the Romanian and Bulgarian prostitutes) I thought to myself: maybe I should just give it a try. So, I headed to this area, tried to pick an older woman (older than 30) and rapidly made my decision.

Unfortunately, she was 24 instead of 30, and Dutch. As a matter of fact, she has many of the characteristics of a victim of a so-called loverboy (or pimpboy as they are called nowadays): she is Dutch, young, and works behind a window. I politely asked her if she wasn't forced to do this. She indicated that she was shocked by the question (but in a positive way: she smiled about it); I was the first person to ask! No, she wasn't, she hated pimps, she works wholly independently. Later after we were done she said she didn't have debts and that she made her hobby her profession. And why would she work behind a counter for a couple a hundred euros a month if she could make 700 euros a day in prostitution?

I believe her, but, if she would have been forced, would she have told me that? Later one of my punter-friends who also knows this girl told me that she doesn't work very often (2 afternoons in the week). She studies and she does this work on the side. She also has a child and a boyfriend. If there is one prostitute he knows who does it voluntarily it is her.

That was very impulsive of me, I felt really bad about myself afterwards, but perhaps I was lucky this time. I think I will visit specific prostitutes in the future of whom I know for sure beforehand that they are really not forced.

Refuse all Romanian girls

Lately a report came out:
http://www.beke.nl/publicaties/weg_achter_het_raam_

It is called 'Weg achter het raam?' ['Gone behind the window?'] by the Bureau Beke (written by Anton van Wijk, Ilse van Leiden en Henk Ferwerda, 2009).

It is about the effect on prostitutes after the closure of several window brothels in Amsterdam. They conclude that because the supply of windows has gone down, the window rents have gone up. The prostitutes now have to pay more to get behind a window. But that is not so interesting in my opinion; if you want to solve this problem, simply help some prostitutes out (especially the forced prostitutes of whom there are rumoured to be many in this type of prostitution), then the demand of prostitutes for windows also goes down. And also; what they say cannot be true because from what I know the windows are heavily under-occupied. But perhaps the situation has recently changed.

But there's something else more interesting in the report. Lately, the municipality of Amsterdam wanted to close down brothels in the Singel area (Korte Korsjespoortsteeg and the Oude Nieuwstraat). It refrained from doing so because there are supposedly much fewer forced prostitutes in that area. I always wondered what is the secret behind this? The report mentions a Romanian girl (page 20) who tried to work in this area, but who was refused because (translated):
"At first the brothel owner finds it okay but as soon as I mention that I am Romanian, the doors gets closed. Bulgarian and Romanian Girls are refused because the brothel owners assume that we all bring problems with us and all are in the hands of loverboys and pimps, that stings us, we feel stigmatized by that."

Very interesting. I always wondered what I would do if I were a brothel owner. In my opinion, from what I know today, it is nearly impossible to seperate the forced from the voluntary prostitutes. They are so good at hiding their situation. And what indeed about just refusing whole groups of prostitutes? No Africans, no Eastern Europeans, no young women (younger than 30), etc ....... Turns out that some brothel owners are indeed doing just that. It is not waterproof however.

Murdered

A prostitute has been murdered on de Wallen on de Oudezijds Achterburgwal 38. She was a Hungarian girl of 19 years old. Metje Blaak of the Red Thread placed flowers at her window.

Here are some Dutch language articles:
Moord zorgt voor angst achter ramen
Angst zit er goed in op de Wallen
Prostituee Berti vermoedelijk vermoord om geld

Zandpad

Main

Lately I suddenly stumbled upon two previously hidden documents about forced prostitution in Utrecht, especially Eastern European women on the Zandpad. The thing these reports tell could be true. I did notice while doing my hookers.nl-count that indeed many Eastern European women work there nowadays (think about 50%, many Bulgarian and Hungarian women). I find it actually interesting to see how they draw their conclusions. The scale of forced prostitution is very difficult to proof indeed. As you will see, the large percentages basically come from rough estimates of social workers with long experience in the field. So technically, you cannot proof anything; when you will interview prostitutes they simply "clam up".

I made some usual free-form translations.

report 1:
Signalen Mensenhandel Utrecht (May 29th 2008, Afdeling Bestuursinformatie Sector Bestuurs- en Concernzaken Gemeente Utrecht)

Page 3:
During the operational analysis of registration The Politie Regio Utrecht has found nine concrete signals of human trafficking on the Zandpad within a time span of eight months.

Page 8:
In short the GG&GD sees the following signals on the Zandpad: a quickly varying population (30-40% of the women) of often Eastern European girls, who barely speak the Dutch language. The GG&GD puts question marks on the age of these girls, just 18 or just not. After inquiry into the reason of being present on the Zandpad they strikingly often have the same story. Women are regularly in the company of ‘[boy?-]friend’ or ‘brother’, drivers are among them. Sometimes physical signs are seen which could point to violence (bruises etc. ).

Page 9-10:
Also volunteers of clerical organizations see strikingly many frightened Eastern European girls. Volunteers of different clerical organizations are often active for years already on the Zandpad. They pass by the houseboats and try to get in contact with the women. They also come on the Zandpad during the night.
They encounter strikingly many young girls from Eastern Europe who barely speak the Dutch language. Girls make a frightened impression and are often accompanied by ‘vague’ male types who show controlling behaviour (listening in etc.) and also physically obstruct the volunteers to reach the girls. The population of the houseboats varies quickly, prostitutes indicate that they often travel for their work and are not bound to one workplace. During conversations with the women on three Friday evenings one of the clerical organizations encounters two Eastern European women where they see the situation as very fishy (looking bad, sad, closed). They speak on these evenings approximately 40 women in total, among who many women not from Eastern Europe (many from Santo Domingo).

(…)

The HAP [Huiskameraanloop Prostituees = Living room for prostitutes] saw 874 women on the Zandpad in 2007 [note at the bottom of that page: “per day the number of unique visitors is registered. Women who visit the HAP more often than once (for example a couple of days later), are registered once again. The number 874 doesn’t concern the number of unique persons on a yearly basis”]. In the second half of 2007 47 women came on their own initiative to the HAP to talk about compulsion (among themselves or others). While doing outreaching work the HAP sees per round some dozens of women. Among half of them they place question marks. Within this group they see many Eastern European women. Striking is also a quickly varying population of ‘very young’ [piepjonge] Bulgarian girls, of whom many originate from Alkmaar (they speak of a ‘Bulgarian wave from Alkmaar’). This group makes a frightened impression, show nervous behaviour, are often way too skinny and after articulating the suspicion of maltreatment ‘they clam up’.

Client of prostitutes also report abuses
On www.hookers.nl many reviews are written by clients about the service of prostitutes. During last December MGZ [Maatschappelijke Gezondheidszorg = Social Healthcare = department of the GG&GD] took stock of all reviews related to the Zandpad. The origin of the women, past work and reports of compulsion/abuses were screended. The months after that the website with respect to the Zandpad was only screened on the origin of the women and on reports of abuses.

From the analysis of December the image exists of a strongly varying population on the Zandpad with many women from Eastern European countries. Of five women there are reports of abuses (of the 88, clients however prefer fixed women which causes the quickly varying women not to be reviewed often [from my own research on hookers.nl this turns out not to be the case! Clients could follow the prostitute from one location to another for years]). In these reports there are talks of nervousness, exhaustion, long working hours, not a free choice of workplace and explicitly of forced prostitution (two reports). All cases involved Eastern European women and in an incidental case again there’s a relation made between Alkmaar.

Page 11-12:
From the analysis of the police recent information has been registered from the second semester 2007 until and including February 2008. Using the police sources blueview, het Herkenningssysteem (HKS [Recognizing System]), the district police officer and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) suspect persons and groups, active on the Zandpad have been identified. Subsequently there has been looked in the history of what more is known about persons and possible other group members and/or victims. In the systems there has been sought using the keywords ‘forced’ and ‘human trafficking’. Information was deemed more reliable when it came form multiple sources. About the persons involved more reports had to be present. Also use is made of the expertise of the team Commerciële Zeden and the Eenheid Mensenhandel Mensensmokkel [Unit Human Trafficking People Smuggling].

Characteristics of human trafficking found on the Zandpad
From the described signals we can identify the following characteristics of human trafficking on the Zandpad (like described in appendix 1):
-Towards the suspects there is a relationship of dependency of the prostitutes (probable caused by the foreign descent of the prostitutes, having few contacts with Dutch society, a bad mastery of language and a relatively low age).
-Suspects have a degree of control over the victims (like transport to living addresses and multiple work areas, tattoo name of pimp on the prostitute, keeping an eye during activities including counting of the number of clients, use of multiple forged identification cards).
-Use of violence (observed are injuries, domestic violence, maltreatment and threats, trivialization of violence by victim out of fear ).
-Remarkable living addresses like declared by suspects and victims on the Zandpad. Housing is an important component of the criminal infrastructure of human trafficking, a living location is used as a sleeping address, but is also used as means of control over the prostitutes. Prostitutes name multiple living addresses within a relative short period; multiple prostitutes name the same address.

Enormous amounts of money go around on the Zandpad
Enormous amounts of money go around in the prostitution branch. This is what the police also sees in the signals on the Zandpad:
-Expensive cars (as a means of transport for prostitutes, as means of control)
-Not known is how much the expensive cars corresponds with the performed labour and salary of the suspects.
-Financial streams show that the prostitutes remit tens of thousand of euros to persons abroad who are also seen on the Zandpad or elsewhere in the country when they drop off prostitutes at the prostitution areas.

(…)

The police sees the suspicion confirmed that a large segment of the women on the Zandpad work under force
The results confirm, given the short researched time span, the suspicion for the police that a substantial segment of the prostitutes are working forced. During the last eight months nine unique signals of human trafficking have been found on the Zandpad. One signal could involve multiple suspects and victims. Multiple cases are found, but only signals which could be confirmed with other information have been included. The fact that the analysis is not exhaustive, involves a short time span and that not all relevant information couldn’t be found in the systems, makes it likely for the police that the real situation is even worse. The police also indicates that it has no view on a certain ‘dark number’. It stays difficult to bring abuses to light. Because of threats, fear of pimps, psychological state or distrust towards the police, prostitutes are often not capable to report the crime to the police or pass on information in a different way to the police about the abuses where they are victims of or have knowledge of.

Page 14:
The reliability of the image outlined above becomes bigger provided that above mentioned observations have been performed independently. The GG&GD indicates that the observations came about independently. The HAP and the clerical organizations until recently did have no contact with each other. Very recently they came together for the first time to talk about gearing activities to one another. The involved staff member of the GG&GD doesn’t hold consultation with the HAP about suspicions of compulsion and has other work periods than the clerical volunteers. Hookers.nl is obviously an independent source anyway.

the other report:
Nulmeting prostitutiebeleid [Baseline measurement prostitution police (in Utrecht)] (November 2006, Afdeling Bestuursinformatie Sector Bestuurs- en Concernzaken Gemeente Utrecht. Writers: Jeroen van der Zweth, Geisje Hoetjes, Irene Boersema)

Page 4:
At a minimum 720 prostitutes working in Utrecht
It is estimated that currently at least 720 prostitutes are active in licensed prostitution. The total number of prostitutes in the city in 1999 was estimated at 350 women who were active in window prostitution, 70 in brothels, 70 in privé-huizen and 180 in street prostitution (GG&GD). It is not known how many women are working in erotic massage parlours. 477 prostitutes have been registered by the Tax Department in 2003. Of 49 of these prostitutes it is known that in the meantime they are not working on the Zandpad anymore, hereby we are left with 428 prostitutes on the Zandpad. On the Baan work some 150 [street] prostitutes with a license. When we add the earlier estimates of 70 in brothels and 70 in privé-huizen we then end up with approximately 720 prostitutes who are working in Utrecht in licensed prostitution, excluding the erotic massage parlours. Of the 150 prostitutes with a license on the Baan 50 reside in Utrecht. On the Baan some 35 to 40 prostitutes come per evening (GG&GD).

Page 6:
An estimated 50 to 95% involuntarily in prostitution
The police (department Commerciële Zeden [Commercial Vices]) estimates that between 50 and 85% of the prostitutes don’t do this work voluntarily. Prostitutes who reported the crime to the police even estimate this at 95%. Involuntariness in this case under force of a pimp, by debts or other circumstances. Also from other researches it turns out that the majority of the women end up forced (or out of necessity).

More info and selected quotes

Time for some extra information from my hookers.nl-count regarding escort prostitutes and prostitutes who receive in their own houses.

Concerning the home workers, I often noticed that when the client made a call to the advertised number, the boyfriend or husband took up the phone. Also some of the boyfriends or husbands open the door and are present in the house while the prostitutes receives her client. Sometimes the man in the house joins in (some couples also offer their service together). One woman received at her brother’s place. Clients also notice that there are sleeping children in the bedrooms.

I don’t know if many of these boyfriends or husbands also force or manipulate the women to do this work. You rarely hear about it in media about this form of prostitution (I bring into mind that the women are many times older than thirty). But on the other hand, it could be. But the men didn’t seem to do anything bad.

I often see the clients complain about the messy interiors of some of the prostitutes’ houses, but this doesn’t happen most of the time. Some women seemed to be on drugs, also while they received clients.

Some prostitutes receive with other prostitutes in their own house. These seem more like illegal brothels.

Many prostitutes advertise that they can be filmed or photographed. Some clients indeed do this, for their own personal use (I wonder if they also put these films on the internet).

Sometimes clients complain that the girl who comes by is not the girl in the advertisement.

Sometimes escorts and home prostitutes seemed to be forced. In some cases the clients has a strange feeling about it, but cannot tell why. For instance, an Eastern European prostitute who receives in a demolition neighbourhood ( this link ), or the porn actress Angelika Black who constantly talks to client about her boyfriend, the client therefore believes that she works for him (this link, she work for Zuzana escort as Elena).

I will quote the cases where I believe the situation is more is less clear (translated from Dutch into English):

http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=189073
Tilburg, Esmiralda (26-29 years old, African)
25 August 2008, 17:02
On kinky and sexjobs there’s and advertisement of a halfblood (?) in the midst of her twenties. She’s supposedly named Esmeralda, and [she] loves several things. Giving blowjobs, gangbang, cumming over belly or face, all no problem according to the advertisement, but appearances are deceptive.
Last week I went to her place. It is a sweet girl with a beautiful body, but of what was in the advertisement, not half a sentence was true. Blowing went difficult, she did cunnilingus but her heart wasn’t in it. I even discovered that she was circumcised, I haven’t witnessed that in my entire lifetime. She’s continuously busy with toilet paper / kitchen roll to clean away each little spot, because according to her own word she is very keen on hygiene. You understand it already… I phoned for [having] half an hour [of sex], and after 25 minutes we were finally fucking. At least… When the top of my junior disappeared into her, she pushed me away. Afraid that I would thrust deeper. And above all, the time was almost running out, and she did point that out to me, so what was left was the handcart [he means masturbating himself]. Well, I could better have saved that € 80, -. What a mockery was that.
I pointed out to her everything what was in the advertisement, and what we didn’t do. She said to me that she rented the room [peeskamer], and that she had to hand over half of her money to the man who placed the advertisement. According to her he just put about everything in the advertisement, what she didn’t want herself. So you are being ripped off before you make an appointment. So he was just her pimp.

http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=62604
Maastricht, Nancy (19 years old, Belgian)
May 13th 2006, 10:52
I finally thought to have found a nice little address in Maastricht to relax after my work, so I called to a horny little schoolgirl according to the websites who still studies. She called herself Nancy 19 years. But what turned out while making the appointment?

To my surprise it was the same lady with whom I had a lesser experience last year.
She is the same person as HETE KELLY from Maastricht. EVA AND KELLY had the same IP address then in Maastricht.

Kelly was also discussed on hookers about the story that she supposedly was only 16 years old.

August 18th 2008, 11:51
Once made an appointment as a result of an advertisement on the internet.
Made a appointment via telephone after which a true espionage scenario is ran through. Arranging on a parking lot in the neighbourhood, driving behind the agreed car. Arriving at the apparent complex but walked behind the lady and the companion (also advertises as dark pamper). Only after being inside you are addressed by the companion. The match takes place in an empty room where an unmade mattress lies. A scary fuck-shed [peeshok]. The girl works herself silently and dutifully through the whole affair.
On the whole I got a very nasty feeling. Everybody should know for himself, but if I do it myself, it is nicer and it costs nothing. Furthermore I don’t know what I should think about the motivation of the lady and the role which her “protector” plays in this.

http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=143011
Rotterdam, Tina (18-21 years old, Thailand)
January 6th 2008, 16:09
Tina is an Asian girl, who receives in Rotterdam. Advertisement is on Kinky almost daily. Made an appointment last Saturday. 1 hour with blowjob without [condom] for € 120,=.
She didn’t really make a spontaneous impression and the fondling and blowing was very dutifully (not out of free will?).
I wasn’t allowed to play with her pussy, later on it turned out why.
Then put a condom on and fuck. Again very dutifully with standard soft moaning sounds. When I wanted to change position she actually didn’t want it. What turned out when I removed my dick from it: she had her period.
I immediately stopped and had my condom removed.
With great difficulty got my 50 euro back, because I had been inside half an hour anyway and she gave me a blowjob.
In my opinion a girl to never go to again!!

January 7th 2008, 11:42
Here idem ditto.
DON”T GO THEEEEERE!!
On the phone you get a spontaneous lady, once there a small puny Thai girl who looks as if she just got up and without announcement a strange guy suddenly stands before her door. I neeeeever taaake a Thai girl again (I thought lets try something else), rather give me the Latinas and Brasileras and other Southern American chicas.
It had never experienced this; almost wanted to slam her awake. Pulled my dick out (first thrusted hardly and deeply a couple of times, ha ha that hurt) and then just stopped.
Weird shit that Lisa.

http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=125078
Amsterdam, Vicky (22-25 years old, Kenia)
December 6th 2007, 20:07
Went to this girl, learn from this!

First called to the ‘owner’ of this girl, could make an appointment and come by during the afternoon. A complete bull-story about that he had to call her etc. etc. if she was home etc. etc.

At arrival in the street made contact again with Ali the Pimp. Was piloted to a house but unfortunately for Ali I was there a bit quicker than he thought. The result was that I could hear the doorbell ring through the telephone: MISTER THE PIMP IS PRESENT IN THE BUILDING. I wish I had gone back immediately.

Vicky eventually opened the door and brought me to a room. After handing over the money she left the room to hand in her money to Ali the Pimp.

Once back this girl takes no initiative whatsoever and according to me she does it more out of fear for the aliens police ánd Ali than for something else.

After locking the door at my request the light couldn’t go on because of lack of curtains. The sad thing is that Ali removes the towel here from the couch in the evening and watches TV.

So in the dark trying to fuck this lady but the condom was rather rough. After request for lubricant the lady comes no further than a bottle of generic-brand bodylotion.

After having been indoors for a quarter of an hour squirted my semen and put my clothes on. The rest of the hour didn’t matter for me anymore. To make matters worse there was no washing facility for the lady or bin for the condoms. I was allowed to use one of the last generic-brand lotion tissues which she also uses to wipe off her vagina….. also good stuff to wrap in your condom and lay it on the table.

This African lady receives in African circumstances, is probably also true for her colleague Joyce.
January 24th 2009, 10:53
Lady comes from Kenia.
Clearly has a pimp.
Actually works under the negotiable price.
Has an extensive service packet.

All risk factors which point to not doing this work voluntarily.

The question is how much you help her by not visiting her.
With too little clientele the ladies are sold on and eventually end up in very disgusting circuits.

She works, or advertises at least, sometimes not for a while and then resurfaces again.

http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=193967
Rotterdam, Naomi (18-21 years old, Surinamese)
December 2nd 2008, 16:48
Rotterdam knows many hidden talents.. While last week I discovered in [Rotterdam] Zuid a pretty Moroccan young, pretty and sexy girl, this time I brought a visit to the Surinamese Naomi on the Noordereiland. I saw her advertisement on Kinky and the photos appealed to me. I phoned her somewhat earlier already, but during the day she is mostly not available, because she is still going to school. Now I was lucky. She had just arrived and she was freshening herself up. At arrival my breath faltered back in my throat. If I had glasses, I most certainly would have cleaned my glasses. A dark-haired young beauty where no man can withstand. After payment to her housemate, who withdrew discretely, she began to French kiss me immediately.

January 10th, 2009, 08:40
Hi,

Also visited this girl once last month.

Yes it really is a (black) beauty but if she does this work out of full conviction remains the question to me.

She receives at her “boyfriend” his place, nice guy who withdrew discretely after payment. Earlier this “boyfriend” had another dark girl working for him he told me. I believe from Capelle [aan de IJssel].

http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=63843
Apeldoorn, Linda (29 years old, Dutch)
September 6th 2006, 00:01
She now indeed does carsex and open-air sex, but also comes on escort she informed me through the telephone.
Agreed to do an hour, 80 euro all in. On the agreed time she arrived at my home, but she had brought her boyfriend or such with her for safety she said, but alright, she knows me from prive2000 and knows I’m not a strange guy.
A very asocial young man of (I think) Antillean descent (dark) who started to scream that I had to pay in advance, only then he would go away. I paid quickly and went with Georgina to my bedroom, but she wasn’t really very enthusiastic. She made a very nervous impression on me and wanted to leave as quickly as possible, lied there watching on her telephone all the time… She probably didn’t have her day and I’m not used of this from her.

September 7th 2006, 01:10
When I called her I got her (foreign) boyfriend on the line who threatened me with death if I didn’t leave his girlfriend alone now.

September 18th 2006, 11:46
I still find her a nice girl, but that boyfriend is a pity indeed, I also got to see a photo of him and their little child.

http://www.hookers.nl/showthread.php?t=196246
Utrecht, Jenny (21 years old, Dutch)
January 14th 2009, 11:06
Yesterday went to Jenny for an hour. Nice girl of 21 years. Receives on the edge of the inner city in Utrecht.
After entry Jenny was pretty stoned, but still a very nice girl. Beautiful body. After a drink went to the bedroom. It was cold there because there was no heating. But ah, keeping each other warm then. Started to finger her while she laid passively on the bed.
She only started to do something when I asked if she wanted to give me a blowjob. After putting on a condom she did that.
Then fucking and after fucking she stood up and started to blow dope……..

Yesterday the price was still 200 euro, but now it dropped to 150 euro per hour. It can go quickly.

Conclusion: beautiful sociable girl, but clearly does it only for the money. No initiative, no enthusiasm.. she has a tattoo of her boyfriend on her body and got almost the impression that she’s especially doing it for him.. But I can’t proof that…

Escort prostitutes 2005

Flashback to my hookers count of escort prostitutes in 2005, to make some comparisons with 2008 (look at that link for more information).

Groups:
26,540%: Eastern European (of 23,214% a nationality is known)
8,057%: No Group (0,000%)
45,498%: Dutch (100,000%)
7,109%: Asian (80,000%)
6,635%: Latina (80,000%)
4,265%: Southern European (22,222%)
1,422%: Western European (100,000%)
0,474%: Nothern African (100,000%)

Of 130 of 211 prostitutes a nationality is known:
96 (49,485%): The Netherlands
5 (11,102%): Poland
3 (6,661%): Hungary
8 (5,155%): Thailand
2 (4,811%): Brazil
2 (4,639%): Italy
2 (4,441%): Romania
1 (2,405%): Surinam
1 (2,220%): Czech Republic
1 (2,220%): Russia
1 (2,220%): Bulgaria
1 (0,644%): Indonesia
1 (0,644%): China
1 (0,644%): Philippines
1 (0,644%): Taiwan
1 (0,515%): Morocco
1 (0,515%): Belgium
1 (0,515%): France
1 (0,515%): Australia

Of 59 escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 24,322 years (SD=7,394)
younger than 18: 5,085% (they looked that way)
18-23: 54,237%
24-29: 25,424%
30-39: 8,475%
40 or older: 6,780%

Of 23 Eastern European escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 21,304 (SD=4,172)
younger than 18: 8,696% (looked that way)
18-23: 69,565%
24-29: 17,391%
30-39: 4,348%
40 or older: 0,000%

Of 23 Dutch escort prostitutes who named an age (+ some estimates):
average: 26,391 years (SD=8,521)
younger than 18: 4,348% (looked that way)
18-23: 43,478%
24-29: 30,435%
30-39: 8,696%
40 or older: 13,043%

Home workers 2005

Flashback, my hookers-count in 2005. To make some comparisons with 2008 (see for further explanations the link I mentioned).

Home prostitution 2005 (and some earlier years)
5,250%: Eastern European (of 42,857% a nationality is known)
7,250%: No Group (0,000%)
71,500%: Dutch (100%)
6,500%: Latina (69,231%)
2,750%: Soutern European (0,000%)
2,500%: Asian (70,000%)
2,250%: Western countries (100,000%)
2,000%: African (25,000%)

Of 331 of 400 prostitutes a nationality was named:
286 (79,444%): The Netherlands
11 (4,414%): Surinam
5 (2,006%): Brazil
7 (1,944%): Belgium
3 (1,944%): Poland
4 (1,587%): Thailand
1 (1,111%): Ghana
1 (1,111%): Sierra Leone
2 (0,794%): Indonesia
1 (0,648%): Slovakia
1 (0,648%): Czech Republic
1 (0,648%): Russia
1 (0,648%): Romania
1 (0,648%): Bulgaria
1 (0,648%): Lithuania
1 (0,401%): Netherlands Antilles
1 (0,401%): Dominican Republic
1 (0,397%): India (Hindustani?)
1 (0,278%): Germany
1 (0,278%): France

Ages mentioned by 91 home working prostitutes (+ some estimates):
Average: 34,143 years (SD=12,477)
18-23: 23,077%
24-29: 19,780%
30-39: 26,374%
40 or older: 30,769%

Ages mentioned by 58 Dutch home working prostitutes (+ some estimates):
Average: 35,483 years (SD=13,779)
18-23: 24,138%
24-29: 15,517%
30-39: 25,862%
40 or older: 34,483%

Forced prostitution in Groningen

I wanted to draw attention again to an (somewhat old article) in De Pers: "Toename vrouwenhandel in Groningen" (December 30th 2008) [Increase of women trafficking in Groningen] . You can read about an earlier post on my blog about this issue over here.

It's about forced prostitution often of Bulgarian women. Police chief Oscar Dros said that (originally in Dutch):
"The causes of the perpetrator and victim role must be made more clear. We notice now for example that victims sometimes don't realize that it's unacceptable what is happening to them. Some girls respond with surprise that the police makes such a point about their situation. Then you really have to explain that it is modern slavery what is happening to them."

Extra analyses

Some extra analyses of my hookers.nl count. This time I will analyze all prostitutes. So I will also analyze really old data. The total number of prostitutes counted was 5033.

I noticed that older prostitutes more often engage into unsafe or dangerous sex than the younger ones. I wanted to do some more precise analyses. Many prostitutes didn't say their age to clients, but a large majority of the reviewed prostitutes have an estimate mentioned in the review forms. These are in four year increments, such as 18-21, 22-25, 26-29 ...... 46-49 and then 50 or older. I calculated numbers for each age group (when no age group is filled in, I will use other sources), and then you can see a really clear trend.

Using the age groups is obviously not reliable, but the ages mentioned by prostitutes aren't reliable either, so it doesn't matter. And this way the samples become really large (you know the law about the big numbers).

First I will look at the average number of review forms filled in per prostitute categorized by age group. Not all clients fill in a review form, but it would be too time consuming to count all reviews. At the top of the review page there is a summary with all the information in the review forms, I used that summary, it would be crazy to go through each review-form.

Average number of reviews per prostitute of a total of 4734 prostitutes:
total: 3,552 review forms per prostitute (N=4734, not all had a review form)
-----------------------------
18-21: 2,467 review forms per prostitute (N=735)
22-25: 3,088 review forms per prostitute (N=1326)
26-29: 4,174 review forms per prostitute (N=1028)
30-33: 3,989 review forms per prostitute (N=544)
34-37: 3,552 review forms per prostitute (N=446)
38-41: 3,912 review forms per prostitute (N=307)
42-45: 4,198 review forms per prostitute (N=192)
46-49: 5,875 review forms per prostitute (N=88)
50-..: 4,941 review forms per prostitute (N=68)

I will give these numbers because it could be that when prostitutes are reviewed more often, more unsafe sex is noticed (that turns out te be the case if you analyze that too). Notice also that older prostitutes don't seem to be less popular, the prostitutes 46 years or older seem to be the most popular. The youngest group of prostitutes seems to be the least popular. On the other hand, you also have to look at the periods during which the prostitutes have been observed by the clients. I will give another list which gives the average of the lengths of the period (in years) during which the women were observed, and also the average number of reviews divided by the average period:

18-22: during 0,412 years (5,984 reviews/year)
22-26: during 0,707 years (4,367 reviews/year)
26-30: during 1,170 years (3,569 reviews/year)
30-34: during 1,303 years (3,062 reviews/year)
34-38: during 1,269 years (2,798 reviews/year)
38-42: during 1,566 years (2,499 reviews/year)
42-46: during 1,755 years (2,393 reviews/year)
46-50: during 2,172 years (2,705 reviews/year)
50-..: during 2,080 years (2,375 reviews/year)

In that case you will notice that the younger prostitutes are indeed more popular. But comparing the age groups of 34 years and older with each other the differences are not that big.

Now unsafe sex. Notice that the older the prostitutes the more often they engage into this.

age 18-23 years (N=761):
23,784%: blowjob without condom
38,896%: kissing
45,729%: Cunnilingus
7,096%: anal with condom
0,131%: anal without condom
5,782%: rimming (buttlicking)
4,993%: facial
1,314%: coitus without condom

age 22-25 years (N=1348):
25,890%: blowjob without condom
40,282%: kissing
47,997%: Cunnilingus
7,641%: anal with condom
0,223%: anal without condom
6,899%: rimming (buttlicking)
6,602%: facial
1,484%: coitus without condom

age 26-29 years (N=1053):
23,457%: blowjob without condom
46,534%: kissing
54,036%: Cunnilingus
10,066%: anal with condom
0,950%: anal without condom
11,871%: rimming (buttlicking)
6,743%: facial
1,425%: coitus without condom

age 30-33 years (N=556):
29,137%: blowjob without condom
52,698%: kissing
56,835%: Cunnilingus
10,612%: anal with condom
1,439%: anal without condom
13,309%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,194%: facial
2,878%: coitus without condom

age 34-37 years (N=455):
35,385%: blowjob without condom
60,879%: kissing
57,363%: Cunnilingus
11,209%: anal with condom
1,758%: anal without condom
11,209%: rimming (buttlicking)
8,352%: facial
2,857%: coitus without condom

age 38-41 years (N=314):
44,904%: blowjob without condom
63,376%: kissing
68,153%: Cunnilingus
14,331%: anal with condom
1,274%: anal without condom
16,879%: rimming (buttlicking)
12,739%: facial
6,369%: coitus without condom

age 42-45 years (N=195):
52,821%: blowjob without condom
65,641%: kissing
67,179%: Cunnilingus
17,436%: anal with condom
4,615%: anal without condom
14,872%: rimming (buttlicking)
12,308%: facial
14,872%: coitus without condom

age 46-49 years (N=90):
56,667%: blowjob without condom
74,444%: kissing
73,333%: Cunnilingus
17,778%: anal with condom
6,667%: anal without condom
27,778%: rimming (buttlicking)
17,778%: facial
15,556%: coitus without condom

age 50 years or older (N=71)
71,831%: blowjob without condom
76,056%: kissing
66,197%: Cunnilingus
25,352%: anal with condom
5,634%: anal without condom
22,535%: rimming (buttlicking)
14,085%: facial
29,577%: coitus without condom

-------------------------------------

The next thing I will do is to give the grand total (N=5033):
29,386%: blowjob without condom
47,844%: kissing
52,951%: Cunnilingus
9,875%: anal with condom
1,053%: anal without condom
10,252%: rimming (buttlicking)
7,371%: facial
3,159%: coitus without condom

And, as a gimmick, I'll show only the result where prostitutes had only one review-form filled in. This way you could make a rough estimate of how often (percent of the visits) the prostitutes who perform unsafe sex actually do this. This is not totally reliable, because I also included the cases where prostitutes offered these kinds of sex, but where the clients didn't use this service (but this doesn't happen too often). And, of many others it simply is not known if they do it. But I will show the results of these calculations anyway, probably the estimates are too high.

TOTAL (ONLY ONE REVIEW, N=2276)
22,276%: blowjob without condom (76% of the visits???)
37,127%: kissing (78% of the visits???)
39,938%: Cunnilingus (75% of the visits???)
5,141%: anal with condom (52% of the visits???)
0,220%: anal without condom (21% of the visits???)
4,174%: rimming (buttlicking) (41% of the visits???)
4,262%: facial (58% of the visits???)
1,054%: coitus without condom (33% of the visits???)

Funny thing is, that I previously didn't really notice that older prostitutes more often do unsafe sex. The statistics don't give a reason why, but I think it must be because older prostitutes have to offer other things to attract clients instead of their beauty. My earlier opinion was that if you want to avoid victims of forced prostitution you'd better visit older prostitutes, because they aren't very interesting to pimps. But this new data makes me wonder; perhaps that older prostitutes less often have problems with pimps, but get something else in its place instead. But perhaps they are just more open-minded.

Zuzana

Talking about Zuzana: I just received the news that three recruiters for the agencies Zuzana, hotelbabes and Hotelgirls have been apprehended who are suspected of recruiting 130 women from the Czech Republic. This case came to light when (February last year) a woman from the Czech Republic fled a house in Rotterdam and then reported to the police. The three recruiters are a 30-year old man from Nieuw-Vennep and a 41-year old man and a 49-old woman from Zelhem. Weekly some 4 to 6 women were put to work in hotels alongside Dutch speedways. The police suspect that the women were paid commission if they recruited other women. Read it all over here:
http://binnenland.nieuws.nl/544461/organisatie_verdacht_van_mensenhandel

And I just got in some other news that also three Hungarian pimps have been caught who forced women from their home country to work in the window prostitution of Alkmaar. The women were forced to hand over thousands of euros per month. The women weren't supposed to get outside or to talk to strangers. The pimps decided how the women were supposed to look. They were supervised continuously. They also had to let know their pimps by SMS how much they earned per client. A 19 year old girl reported to the police. Read it here:
http://www.elsevier.nl/web/Artikel.htm?contentid=221518

Just a coincidence, this is not a newssite anyway.