Demonstration by sex workers, on March 30, 2023 in Amsterdam, against the project to move prostitution from the city’s famous Red Light District to an “erotic center” in the suburbs (AFP/Archives/Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD)
The atmosphere is tense in Amsterdam where residents and sex workers fiercely oppose the plan of the mayor of the Dutch capital to move prostitution from the famous Red Light District to an “erotic center” in the suburbs.
Up against the prospect of seeing a “huge brothel” a stone’s throw from their homes, hundreds of residents have joined the protest of sex workers, who want to stay behind their scarlet neon windows near the canals of the historic center.
Facing them, Mayor Femke Halsema defends her plan tooth and nail, even if it means being called “Madam whores”.
“It is not possible”, launched a mother in tears, during a meeting between Ms. Halsema and residents near one of the three sites envisaged for the creation of the erotic center.
Residents fear that nuisances from the Red Light District will move onto their streets. For their part, sex workers fear they will bear the brunt of a project intended to reduce crime and mass tourism in the city center.
“The mayor says we’re just a tourist attraction and people come to make fun of us and humiliate us. That’s just not the case,” a sex worker told AFP, identifying herself like Michelle.
– “Resistance” –
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema (bottom left) talks to opponents during the March 30, 2023 sex worker protest against her plans to move prostitution from the city’s notorious Red Light District to an “erotic center “in the suburbs (AFP/Archives/Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD)
Amsterdam, a hotbed of legal prostitution, is trying to shed its “city of sin” image and lessen the impact of party tourism.
“There will always be resistance, whatever solution we choose,” Ms. Halsema told AFP, visibly exhausted after the exchanges with the residents.
At the end of March, sex workers demonstrated in the streets of the city, with the slogan “Save the Red Light District”. They claim that moving them would harm their livelihoods and their safety.
“If you’re inside it’s already good, but you will also have to go out with your winnings,” worries Michelle.
Demonstration by sex workers, on March 30, 2023 in Amsterdam, against the project to move prostitution from the city’s famous Red Light District to an “erotic center” in the suburbs (AFP/Archives/Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD)
And the 100 places planned are lower than the 250 cabins in the Red Light District, observes the Dutchwoman. Even if with its spaces intended for culture, art and “erotic” entertainment, the building could benefit some, she admits.
The row has even involved the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is strongly opposed to the fact that two of the proposed sites are close to its new headquarters south of Amsterdam.
But organizations such as the EMA “know in which city they are established”, retorts the mayor, convinced that sex workers will be safer in an erotic center.
– “Witch hunt” –
The Red Light District represents only a “small part” of prostitution in the Dutch capital, underlines for his part Alexander de Vos, a former gay sex worker present at a meeting between the mayor and Amsterdammers.
“There are also transgenders, gays” for whom “there is no place, and this center offers a possibility” for them, he adds to AFP.
Demonstration by sex workers on March 30, 2023 in Amsterdam against plans to move prostitution from the city’s famous Red Light District to an “erotic center” in the suburbs and against the closing of brothels earlier this weekend (AFP/Archives /Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD)
Alexander, however, says he is against a closure of the Red Light District, targeted by a series of increasingly restrictive measures: brothels must close earlier on weekends and the ban on alcohol in the street will soon be extended to cannabis.
Amsterdam has also launched an online campaign to discourage young Europeans from hosting bachelor parties or other party sprees in the city.
Denouncing a “witch hunt”, the sex workers deny being at the origin of mass tourism and crime.
Signs of sex shops in the Red Light District of Amsterdam, March 30, 2023 (AFP/Archives/Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD)
The neighborhood is filled with “signs with everything that is not allowed,” notes Michelle. “The problem is that no one receives a fine”, observes the Dutchwoman, for whom the municipality should enforce the existing rules before adding them.
And residents of the Red Light District, where prostitution has existed since the 16th century, “know where they’ve settled,” Michelle adds. For her, moving sex workers to the suburbs “looks like a gentrification project” of the city center.
© 2023 AFP
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