The situation out of Trafficking
Trafficking showed up into the political plan just after stress from feminists and you may the brand new federal women’s coverage agencies. To begin with, feminine was basically trafficked out of The southern area of Asia (somewhat Thailand and also the Philippines), Latin The usa (Columbia and also the Dominican Republic and you may Africa (Ghana); after the slide of the Berlin Wall surface, trading paths moved on in order to Central and you can East Europe. Political means had been identifying the new offense alot more broadly so you’re able to support prosecution and you can enhancing the penalty regarding 5 to 6 age, with the intention that culprits would-be kept inside the remand custody. New articles on the penal password on human trafficking was in fact modified inside the 1993, with a far more direct definition of the fresh offence and higher penalties to own traffickers (Outshoorn 2004a: 195). The newest blogs was in fact framed in the a good gender-natural way, and you can trafficking remained defined as pushing a man on the 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 https://escortbabylon.de/en/germany/baden-wurttemberg/freiburg 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.
Categories of Sex Workers
Next utilization of new operate lead to the building off no below five categories of prostitutes. Firstly, there is the ethnically vague Dutch sex personnel just who voluntarily chooses working for the prostitution in fact it is the latest bearer out-of municipal and personal legal rights. Subsequently, you can find the latest prostitutes from other Eu countries who’ll move freely inside and out of Netherlands and you may work in the latest sex community. These kinds split into a couple classes pursuing the accession toward European union of your Baltic Claims, Poland, Hungary, the newest Czech Republic and you may Slovakia inside the 2004, and then make a 3rd group exactly who can just only legitimately act as prostitutes if they were separate sex professionals and never team. Inside the 2007, sex specialists on the the newest European union people was accepted for the an enthusiastic equivalent ground to your older Eu member pros, nevertheless third category is today filled up with sex pros away from Bulgaria and you can Romania whenever both regions entered brand new Eu in this same 12 months. Like their predecessors, these ladies are allowed to work as independent sex professionals, however, so far much less group.