Street prostitution ends in Rotterdam

14 September 2005

AMSTERDAM — Street prostitution on the Keileweg in Rotterdam came to an end on Tuesday night. Both Streetwalking and window prostitution are now illegal in the port city.

Security personnel locked the gates at the entrance to the “open-air brothel” at 11.40pm.

The were no prostitutes or clients left by midnight when municipal workers began removing all signs the place was ever a tolerated prostitution zone. Keileweg is being rebuilt as a dockyard.

Only a handful of prostitutes turned up earlier on Tuesday to ply their trade on the street. The number of clients was also limited, partly due to the larger amount of news reporters and cameras present to record the last evening of public prostitution in Rotterdam.

In its heyday, up to 250 women sold sex on the Keileweg and traffic jams built up on the street as potential clients cruised the area in their cars.

Rotterdam Council voted in 2002 that the city’s street prostitution area should close because of ongoing crime, drugs and public disturbance problems.

Due to the large amount of drug dealers and drug addicts hanging around the area, the zone was classified as being uncontrollable.

The women who worked on the street have been offered places in programmes to help them find another line of business.

Amsterdam Council closed its street prostitution zone in the western harbour area at the end of 2003 as a result of ongoing problems with organised crime and the illegal trafficking of women.

Prostitute lobby groups and some healthcare workers criticised the move at the time, saying that the women who worked there would be forced elsewhere and would disappear from the protective supervision and treatment offered by the authorities.

Subject: Dutch news