This article looks at the transition of Dutch society and the legalistic difficulties this has brought forth. It focuses towards the operation of organised crime, more specific the trafficking and forced prostitution of Hungarian women working in the Netherlands and seeks to stimulate discussion regarding combating this type of crime from both a Dutch, Hungarian and EU perspective.
The Netherlands are, at least for a lot of people who never have been there, commonly perceived as a Sodom and Gomorra like society with an everlasting presence of drugs and prostitution. And yes it's a fact that the Dutch government has been lenient towards these types of substance use and human behaviour, which are commonly (more) criminalised in other countries then they are in the Netherlands, but this is explained by a short historical review. At the end of the 1960's early 1970's Dutch society was in turmoil as at one hand the youth and on the other hand the women were starting with (re-)conquering their position within, a up until then, mostly white middle-aged male orientated society. as a result of this cultural and feminist based non-violent revolution to gain autonomy[1], structural changes have been realised within Dutch society and also within the criminal legislation as they have triggered a (re) new(ed) interest in the victim as crucial part of the criminal and penal process. The Dutch youth opted another approach by being rebellious and by doing so turning themselves against dominant society which up until then was structured upon a middle-aged white male perspective. They took on the American hippy culture with a positive attitude towards the use of illegal stimulants i.e. marihuana and a liberal moral towards sex as an example.
In regards to the first, they started using different types of drugs on such a wide scale, the police decided not to act as this caused more social problems. This was motivated by the limited success rates of prosecution and by extension when a case was prosecuted s successfully, the sentencing was next to nothing and in no relation to the deployment of the police. Eventually the police decided not to act and they started to condone the situation and only intervene in cases when a situation was beyond (informal agreed upon) limits. In the end these two social processes required legal action by an increasingly cornered government.[2] Instead of implementing legislation focussing towards repression as other European countries like France and the UK did, the Dutch government choose a path of de facto legal acceptance for drugs and a formal (de iure) approach for prostitution as repression was seen unnecessary and not feasible. For the practical implementation of legal measures regarding the drug(ab)use, this eventually led to the commonly discussed and criticised Dutch Condone Policy towards several types of grey list substances, also known as soft-drugs like Marihuana. Beside this situation not of non-acting on soft-drugs use and controlled sales, prostitution required a different approach as the stakes i.e. women's rights requested legalisation. The profession of a prostitute as a woman's choice and given right was less criticised nationally and on a European level and became a formalised fact on the first of October 2000 after more than two decades of debate and almost 30 years after the entry into force of the Drug related Condone Policy.[3] With this legalisation, the initial idea was to minimise the influence of human traffickers and abolish forced prostitution. Interesting to know is that Sweden chose a completely different approach with the same goal. Instead of legalisation in 1999 they choose to fully criminalise and penalise the purchase of sex by men.[4] Part of the Dutch approach of legalisation was that the women were seen as independent entrepreneurs who should register themselves at the Chamber of Commerce, pay taxes and by doing so would also benefit of the decriminalisation of the profession. These advantages existed out of accessible funded social health care and protection and regulation out of labour law existing out of secondary benefits like a pension, disability compensation and unemployment benefits. At this time, both legal developments lacked a criminal and penal base as they were approached out of a health care perspective in order to minimise risks of illness, addiction, abuse and death.
This process of decriminalisation and legislation was not flawless as European pressure led to several adaptations. The international pressure was especially noticeable within the drug orientated Condone Policy as the French government used its European influence to put pressure on the Dutch.[5] This eventually led to re-criminalising the so-called
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Hajjis and Magic Mushrooms. This eventually became a legal nightmare as criminal law became more influential and pro-active and suppressed the set health care goals. With this limitation of the health care legislation and goals, criminal law replaced the once so noble protective goals by means that were once supportive but now became a goal in itself. In fact this means that when a process of criminalisation c.q. decriminalisation is not completed within a certain period it will linger and what follows is a time of uncertainty which eventually will act as a stimulant for organised criminals to operate in the grey sphere surrounding the process of legalisation. An example can be found in de Condone Policy as the so-called back door approach has been left unnamed. This means the sale of marihuana by a coffee shop is accepted, provided that the AHOJ-G rules[6] and additional standards are uphold. The cultivation and supply of the marihuana however has been left unregulated resulting in the situation that the influence of organised crime is becomingly increasing. Because of this governmental action against this criminal behaviour is required and criminal law will be implemented as a short term solution. As a result society is becomingly more and more willingly or unwillingly subjected to the rules of criminal law, minimising peoples' freedom while this liberal concept of freedom was once the basis for the entire Dutch legalisation process.
The growth of organised crime within Dutch society as a result of legislative hiatus has been a subject of growing interest ever since the 1980's Klaas Bruinsma era.[7] The turnover of these criminals was estimated to run into the billions of Euros each year and their influence into society grew rapidly.[8] These criminals are commonly seen as octopi with tentacles in all spheres of society, conducting all types of criminal behaviour. A large part of their income is derived out of the trafficking of Eastern-European women who are forced into a life of prostitution. The word forced in this means more than having an enforcer, commonly a large unfriendly man, with a baseball bat standing outside of your window/rooms but it also implicates different types of grooming, seduction and trickery.[9]
During the academic year of 2008-2009, 218 Bachelor of Law students for their course on criminological research methods conducted 5000 face to face questionnaires amongst people living in Rotterdam based upon a non-probability stratified sample of the different boroughs. Eventually 2419 questionnaires were returned as being valid. The questionnaire looked into the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) feelings towards prostitution in relation to other more or less unwanted phenomena like a homeless shelter, a rehab centre and a youth centre for troubled criminal youngsters. Over 92% of the respondents were most negative about having a red light district or other type of regulated prostitution area in their own neighbourhood and 99% of the respondents when asked if they would mind having one in their own street. At the same time almost 86% of the respondents declared to have a positive attitude towards the concept of prostitution in Dutch society.
Generally speaking we can assume Dutch society is okay with the concept of prostitution as long as this does not come too close to the sphere of everyday life. This also portraits the general attitude still present since the turnaround from the late 1970's when almost every one opposed to prostitution in neighbourhoods but 80% declared to have a positive attitude.
Over the period of September 2009 - September 2011, 186 women working as prostitutes at several well know red lights districts in the cities of The Hague, Amsterdam and Groningen as well as women working in a private surrounding in the city of Rotterdam in The Netherlands were interviewed. The main focus of these interviews was orientated towards their working position and the possibility for them to exit their current work environment. A great part of these interviews nevertheless also addressed issues of nationality, travel and the working conditions of these girls.
While working with this data, one striking fact drew attention. This was the situation that 97 of the interviewed women, in the age range of 21 to 34, were originally from Hungary and more specific 56 of them came out of the town of Szeged. The other 41 women came either out of the city of Budapest or the surrounding regions. It is estimated that the presence of Hungarian women working within prostitution in The Netherlands over the last five years has doubled.[10] It is unclear if these Hungarian women belong to the Roma population but in general it is estimated that Roma women make up for 40% to 80% of all trafficked women from Hungary.[11] All the women have been working within the Netherlands for a period of five months up until two years. Before they started working in the Netherlands, 93 of them have worked in Hungary as a prostitute, more specific in Budapest
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and all of them have worked in another European country before they came over to the Netherlands. Out of the 97, 86 of them have worked several years in different German cities like Munich and Hamburg, five have worked in Northern-Italy, four in the Czech Republic, two in Slovakia and two in Belgium. They all say they don't think that the Netherlands will be the last country they will work in. What is also interesting is the fact they have frequently travelled around in the Netherlands and have been active in several other Dutch red light districts before. A frequent exchange link is seen between the cities of The Hague, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Groningen. The odd one out is Rotterdam, because this city lacks a formalised red light district and the Hungarian women working in Rotterdam are commonly working out of a private setting or out of a(n) (il-)legal brothel which they share with two or three other women and a caretaker. Punters can contact them by answering an advertisement in a newspaper or via the internet. More recently the amount of online advertisements, especially for Rotterdam, have grown rapidly. This could mean this way of operating is more lucrative for the human traffickers as this is very hard to control and investigate by police, health care services and tax service and could give more control over the women.
Websites like kinky.nl and privategirls.nl offer a wide variety of women working in the sex trade and a quick search on the city of Rotterdam on either website resulted in a few hundred hits. Most of the women's pictures show a lot of resemblance in surrounding i.e. the chamber, bed etc. and in pose. These women will give their address when an appointment has been made and this is commonly a normal house, not registered as a brothel with the chamber of commerce. These sex houses are run by illicit entrepreneurs who usually have one or two men or women present there to keep an eye on the prostitutes. The question can be raised if these entrepreneurs and so-called care-takers are the same people responsible for the travel of the women as well. It is expected they belong to the same group. These places are usually operational for only a few months and then they disappear as do the women working there. They usually change their name and move to another city and then place a new advertisement with new pictures but frequently the same text and the same textual and typographical errors.
At first sight the majority of the Hungarian women, who commonly introduce themselves as Megy, Maria or Paula, and even though a visual inspection of their working conditions in the so-called 'pees kamertjes' gives the idea of third world like standards, are quite cheerful and enthusiastic with a positive attitude. In general the educational level of the women can be classified as low, their social economic status in Hungary was low as well and some of the women show signs of some sort of mental handicap which makes them vulnerable to abuse.[12] They quite commonly do not speak any other language then their native tongue which makes it hard to interact in everyday life and to communicate with both the 'Walkers' (as the punters/clients call themselves) and public officials.
However, during the interviews a second reality in contra to their positive attitude is surfaced. They are frequently frightened by different situations of uncertainty and external pressure and their level of trust in others is very low or even absent. The women usually work more than the legal maximum of 40 hours per week and it is not uncommon that the women are forced to work for 60 up to a 100 hours per week.[13] Except for five, all of the Hungarian women have declared that they have started working as a prostitute because of financial needs in Hungary and because they came in contact with men who promised them a quick and easy route to a better life. In some cases they were forced to work as a prostitute by relatives in order to help make ends meet. Of them, 43 were told beforehand that they had to work as a prostitute, only the circumstances under which they had to operate were portrayed completely different. The other half were lured with stories of becoming a model or a waitress. This modus operandi is confirmed in Dutch police investigations towards two Hungarian women trafficking organisations called Lunar and Swan.[14] One of the biggest problems for the Dutch authorities is the situation that the Hungarian women who have fallen victim to traffickers as EU citizens can travel freely between EU member states without being checked because of the Schengen agreement. Beside this, they work legally in the Netherlands because they also adhere to Dutch prostitution regulations. This of course under strict supervision of their pimps / traffickers. The only difference can eventually be found when the women file their taxes. As they are extorted out of most of their income their tax forms are noticeably different from those of indigenous prostitutes. As mentioned before could the chance in modus operandi by offering the women to the public with the use of the internet and making use of private rented flats etc. minimise the chance for the trafficked women to be detected by the authorities.
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The Dutch variety of the Red Thread is a nonprofit organisation that assists and supports prostitutes out of a female perspective and they have recently researched the position of Hungarian women active as prostitutes in the Netherlands. During a joint conference in Amsterdam in 2012, Hungarian aid workers expressed their concerns in regards to Hungarian women who have to work in prostitution. Especially the formal position of the Hungarian government is of great concern, as denying the existence of prostitution does not help the position of the women active in prostitution in Hungary.[15] Besides this, it also makes it difficult to combat the trafficking of women as Hungary is both a transit country as well as a purveyor of indigenous women and the Hungarian government only looks at the aspect of internal trafficking and EU legislation.[16] Because of this policy of denial the women have no public first line assistance nor formal aid out of a victim perspective within Hungary as their actions have been criminalised and therefore are punishable by law themselves. This makes them even more vulnerable and exposed to abuse by organised crime groups.
In order to effectively help these women and combat the organised criminals responsible for the abuse and trafficking of these women, international cooperation on different levels is required. On the one hand, there should be a change in attitude towards prostitution in general. There should be an awareness that women are actually working in this profession and of the fact that a large portion of these women is doing so involuntarily. In order to increase the possibilities of adequate and timely help for the latter group of women a legal structure needs to be implemented as prohibition only weakens the position of the victim. This article isn't a paean to the Dutch approach of legalisation as this also has shown weakness. An adequate approach should firstly exist out of acceptance and decriminalisation of the women and men working as a prostitute so social benefits and general acceptance is possible. Secondly, a moral change in attitude towards visiting a prostitute and perhaps criminalising these visits when they not uphold formal regulations. Thirdly, there is need for the possibility of implementing different approaches towards voluntary and involuntary prostitution and fourthly there is need for a regulated, structured and controllable system which exists out of close cooperation of all concerned parties. Important lessons can be learned from other countries which have worked on the concept of prostitution and an International comparison could easily provide new insights, help and ideas.
On the other hand there is need for an European approach towards the phenomenon of prostitution.[17] As mentioned before, denial is not a solution, instead an active governmental role is required. Different approaches i.e. legalisation, (de)criminalisation, regulation and prohibition[18] should be combined on both a national and an European level to effectively protect these vulnerable trafficked women who are forced into a life of prostitution. By doing so effectively combating organised trafficking organisations on an European level is made easier as organised crime is becoming more and more cross border depended. European policy should become the standard and European police cooperation should be the first order of business when discussing ongoing European integration as these women fallen victim of traffickers need adequate, swift and reliable protection.
Boekhout van Solinge, T. (2010) 'Het Nederlandse Drugsbeleid en de wet van de remmende voorsprong'. in: Nederlands Juristenblad (40 p. 2580-2587)
Centrum voor gelijkheid van kansen en voor racismebestrijding (2009) 'Mensenhandel-Smokkel in een schijn van wettelijkheid'.
Daalder, A. (2007) 'Prostitution in the Netherlands since the lifting of the brothel ban'. Den Haag: BJU/WODC
Garland, D. (2001) 'The Culture of Control. Crime and Social Disorder in Contemporary Society'. Oxford: Oxford University Press
ICMPD (2010) 'Study on the assessment of the extent of different types of Trafficking in Human Beings in EU countries'
Matthews, R. (2008) 'Prostitution, Politics and Policy'. Oxon: Routledge-Cavendish
Ramesar, P. 'De Hongaarse connectie, in: Trouw (0212-2009)
Sarbo, A. (2011) 'Land van herkomst: Hongarije In contact met Hongaarse slachtoffers van mensenhandel'. Comensha: Amersfoort
Scharlaken Koord, "Hulp aan Hongaarse prostituees hard nodig!" in: De Oogst (July/August 2012)
Schuyt, C. (1995) 'Tegendraadse werkingen. Sociologische opstellen over de onvoorziene gevolgen van verzorging en verzekering'. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press
UNODC (2010) 'The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat
Assessment' (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.10. IV.6.2010).
http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/tocta/TOCTA_Report_2010_low_res.pdf.
Verwijs, R., Mein, A., Goderie, M., Harrelveld. C., & Jansma, A. (2011) 'Loverboys en hun slachtoffers. Inzicht in aard en omvang problematiek en in het aanbod van hulpverlening en opvang'. Utrecht: Verwey Jonker
http://www.verwey-jonker.nl/doc/vitaliteit/Lover-boys_en_hun_slachtoffers_7210_web.pdf
Visscher, J. "Honderden prostituees als slaven behandeld", in: Reformatorisch Dagblad (29-10-2011)
http://www.burojansen.nl/traa/index.htm
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</a>id=50000>http://www.kinky.nl</a>
</a>id=50000>http://www.privategirls.nl</a>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYUtBTzdKC0&feature=youtu.be ■
NOTES
[1] Schuyt, C. (1995, p. 95)
[2] Garland, D. (2001)
[3] See for further reading Daalder, A. (2007)
[4] Matthews, R. (2008)
[5] Boekhout van Solinge, T. (2010)
[6] These are the sale standards and stands for: no Advertisement, No Harddrugs (black list substances), no Disturbance, no Sales to Minors and no Sales of quantities exceeding the five gram limit. Beside this other requirements are: a limited stock of 500 grams, upholding the no-smoking requirements and becoming a foundation with sales only to its members who possess a marihuana membership card.
[7] http://www.burojansen.nl/traa/index.htm 26/08/2012
[8] UNODC (2010)
[9] Centrum voor gelijkheid van kansen en voor racismebestrijding (2009)
[10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYUtBTzdKC0&feature=youtu.be (Information documentary coordination center human trafficking 26/08/2012)
[11] Sarbo, A (2011 p. 8)
[12] Verwijs, R. et al. (2011)
[13] Visscher, J. (2011)
[14] Ramesar, P. (2009)
[15] Scharlaken Koord (2012)
[16] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYUtBTzdKC0&feature=youtu.be (Information documentary coordination center human trafficking 26/08/2012)
[17] ICMPD (2010)
[18] Matthews, R. (2008)
Lábjegyzetek:
[1] The author is senior lecturer of Criminology at INHolland University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam.
Visszaugrás
