RNW Press Review – Wednesday 12 March 2008 – by Nicola Chadwick

Most of the papers print photos of the opening of the 73rd Dutch Book Week yesterday evening in Amsterdam. Dresscode was silver grey, although the honorary guest and author of this year's freebee book J Bernlef seems to have not been told. He arrives with his whole family dressed in black and white. A graffiti artist cheekily points a silver spray can in their direction.

Forever young
This year's theme is an ode to the over-60s and is entitled "The third age and literature". The traditional ball marking the opening of the event was dubbed "forever young". The ten-day book week was introduced in 1932 to promote books and reading. Although the Dutch need little encouragement. According to AD, in 2007 records were broken with 45 million books being sold.

Human trafficking
There are shocking statistics in Trouw on the increase in human trafficking. According to a report by the Coordination Centre for Human Trafficking for the Lower House, most of the victims of human trafficking in the Netherlands were actually born here and hold a Dutch passport. In fact the number of Dutch victims in 2007 actually increased by 5 percent compared to 2006. "We used to think that this sort of thing did not go on in the Netherlands" says the author of the report.
These are just the official figures; the true statistics are probably much higher, says the paper, because many victims do not go to the police.

Victims are forced to do hard work for a pittance. They are made so dependent that they are unable to choose freely to leave.

The number of male victims rose from 30 to 49 in 2007, most of them being forced to work in the construction industry and agriculture with just the odd one being forced into male prostitution.

The figures for women are much higher at almost 700, with more than half being forced into prostitution, many of them by loverboys, who lure young girls into working for them by showering them with gifts.

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