21 September 2007

AMSTERDAM (AFP) - The city of Amsterdam announced Thursday that it will invest up to EUR 15 million to help clean up its famous red light district by buying brothels there.

The city will help a real estate developer buy 51 storefront windows where prostitutes ply their trade to convert them into apartments or commercial premises.

Although prostitution has been legal in the Netherlands since 2000, the city is trying to bring about a voluntary clean-up of Amsterdam's famous red light district.

City mayor Job Cohen told a news conference that the deal announced Thursday represented "a big step".

"Since the legalisation in 2000, things have changed," Cohen said.

"The law was created for voluntary prostitution but these days we see trafficking of women, exploitation and all kinds of criminal activity," he said.

The Wallen, as the prostitution district is known in Dutch, is one of the oldest and most picturesque areas of Amsterdam and draws hoards of tourists, although they mainly flock there to gawk at the women.

"It is not about chasing prostitution of the Wallen, but it's about fighting crime," Cohen stressed.

City council member responsible for finance Lodewijk Asscher said closing down the prostitute windows should not have a negative impact on tourism.

"We are talking about what we call vertical drinkers, people who walk around the district drink in hand and never even sit down in the area's bars and restaurants," he said of the tourists attracted to the area.

"What's more important? A tourist attraction or women who are victims. It's modern slavery," Asscher added.

However, the Dutch sex workers' union De Rode Draad criticised the plans.
"We believe that less windows means more exploitation of women," spokeswoman Metje Blaak told AFP.

"If the windows close down, women who are being exploited will be hidden somewhere else where union representatives and health workers can't make contact with them," she explained.

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