This article will first sketch the nature and extent of prostitution and women trafficking in the Netherlands, to then present and critically analyze the existing legislation, policies and concrete interventions concerning forced prostitution and women trafficking.¹

Nature and Extent of Prostitution

There are several forms of prostitution in the Netherlands. The first widely known modality is the so-called ‘window prostitution’. Window soliciting is originally a Dutch phenomenon but recently quite common in surrounding countries such as Belgium or Germany. Apart from Amsterdam, only few other large cities have window prostitution. There are 12 “red-light districts” with window prostitution in the Netherlands. Secondly, many prostitutes work on the streets in ‘toleration zones’ (tippelzones). These zones were officially installed during the 1980s and 1990s, aimed to reduce the nuisance prostitution caused on the streets (particularly around main train stations) and to increase the safety of prostitutes. The Hague was the first to introduce the official zones providing medical care, and shelters to provide a meal, showers and condoms. Although it improved the situation for some prostitutes it also opened up opportunities for women traffickers, illegal prostitutes (without residence permit) and drug dealers. Therefore, the first zone was shut down in Amsterdam in 2003, and various cities including Rotterdam and The Hague, followed the example. A third form of prostitution can be found in escort services, which according to all sources have been increasing for the last 5 years. Fourth, many women work as ‘independent entrepreneurs’ in brothels, sex clubs, saunas, sex-farms, massage parlors and hotels. They keep all or part of the money paid by clients for the sexual services, while they pay money to the owners of the establishment in concept of entrance, fee, commission or rent. Finally, many women work in private homes either inviting and/or visiting clients, contacting them through internet or mobile phone.

The exact amount of prostitutes working in the Netherlands is difficult to calculate due to the large dark number. According to Van der Helm & Van Mens (1999), by the end of the 1990s, there were between 20,000 and 25,000 prostitutes working in the Netherlands, 68% of which were coming from abroad. Ministerial research claims a number of 25,000 (active) prostitutes in 1997 (WODC, 2004), while in 2005 Asante & Schaapmans (2005) estimated an amount of 15,000 to 20,000 active prostitutes. Other estimations vary from 14,000 prostitutes in 1999 (Luykx & Van Soest, 1999) to at least 18,000 prostitutes working only in the visible circuits of windows, clubs and streets (Visser et al, 2000). Apart from the fact that there is no good overview on prostitutes working in hotels, private homes (through telephone and internet) and escort services, all sources indicate a large number of illegal prostitutes (prostitutes without a residence permit), making any accurate estimation extremely difficult.

In 1997, illegal prostitutes were estimated to be 40% of the total prostitutes. The estimation by Asante & Schaapmans (2005) raises the percentage of foreign prostitutes to over 50%. Without a clear view of definitions used by both researches to determine the percentage of illegal prostitutes one can only ascertain a high percentage of illegal prostitutes within the whole market.

In the 1970s, the majority of foreign prostitutes were from Thailand and the Philippines, whereas in the 1980s from Latin America and the Caribbean. After the fall of the Soviet Union many came from Central and Eastern Europe. In 1999, no more than 33% were Dutch nationals, the remainder representing 44 nationalities. The majority was from the Dominican Republic, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland.

The Extent and Social Organization of Women Trafficking

As with most other crimes, it is impossible to present reliable data on human trafficking due to the hidden nature of the activities. The problems with the ‘facts and figures’ around human trafficking are huge. According to the Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings (BNRM),² insights into the ‘dark number’ of human trafficking are very limited, and victims are often reluctant to step forward out of shame, fear for the traffickers and their possible expulsion. Above this, not all cases of human trafficking are recognised as such, nor are they systematically registered (BNRM, 2004: 1). The figures presented in Table 1 are based on closed police investigations and on registrations, as well as figures of NGOs dealing with women trafficking. It should be kept in mind that the figures and trends described not necessarily reflect trends within women trafficking, but could easily be influenced by changes in the data gathering methods and context.

The NGO Foundation Against Women Trafficking (STV) collects data on (possible) victims. Of course, not all victims are reported at the STV. Police is the only party that is obliged to report victims of women trafficking; however citizens, help organizations or other NGOs can also report to the STV. This implies that victims may be missing in the figures or be counted twice. Nevertheless, the figures collected by the STV reflect the best available figures regarding the number of victims of women trafficking in the Netherlands.

The figures presented in the fourth and fifth column are based on official police data. They should not be interpreted in terms of mirroring the increase or decrease of cases of women trafficking in the Netherlands, but first of all as figures representing the activities, priorities, and capacities of Dutch police.

After Eastern European borders opened, there was an influx of female sexual labour towards the Netherlands as well as to other European countries. The rise in unemployment figures, changes in familial structures, the position of prostitutes and the situation of ethnic minorities in sending countries are regarded as important push factors to explain the flux of these women from Central and Eastern Europe to the Netherlands (Vocks & Nijboer, 2000). According to the STV, the number of reports on women trafficking doubled in 1993-1994 with offenders as well as victims mainly originating from Central and Eastern European countries (Parlementaire Enquetecommissie Opsporingsmethoden 1996). More recent sources show that the registered victims of trafficking at the STV still come from Central and Eastern Europe especially from Bulgaria, Romania and Russia (STV, 2004; BNRM, 2007). Most of the women from Central and Eastern Europe travel to the Netherlands by car (Kleemans et al., 1998: 107). A popular route for Romanian and Moldavian women is through the Balkans, especially Bosnia Herzegovina and Albania. Most of the women enter the Netherlands via Germany. Women from other continents usually use air transportation. Most of the times they travel with forged documents or with a tourist visa. The obligation for a visa does not seem to make a difference for the traffickers (BNRM, 2005).

With regard to other countries, Thailand as well as Nigeria are frequently mentioned as important countries of origin. According to the report on Minors in Prostitution in the Netherlands (ECPAT, 2003) women of Nigeria enter the country as UMAs (unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers) before they disappear to work in prostitution. Recently, the number of Moroccan and Czech victims is on the increase, as well as the number of Dutch victims during the years 2004 and 2005. As the newly published Monitor of Human Trafficking in the Netherlands shows, Dutch trafficked women compose a substantial percentage of the victims (BNRM, 2007). Recently, a large transnational active network of Turkish traffickers who exploited not only migrant women but also women with a Dutch, German and Irish background was arrested.³

Most victims of women trafficking are between 18 and 25 years of age (Vocks & Nijboer, 2000; BNRM, 2005, 2007), single and without children. Relatively often, victims of women trafficking, especially Central European victims, come from problematic families – single-parent families, alcohol abusing parents, incest, mistreatment, financial and housing problems, psycho-social problems, etc. Many women were living with their parents on whom they were financially dependent. A large number of victims had already worked as a prostitute before and more than 50% knew that they would have to work in the sex industry. The educational background of victims differs between countries and periods. In the past, victims from Central Europe were usually better educated, as is the current generation from Eastern Europe. Recently, however, victims from Central Europe have shown lower educational levels and also a lesser degree of social integration in their home countries (Vocks & Nijboer, 2000).

Women traffickers often engage in small and ethnic homogeneous networks in which ethnic and kinship relations play a central role, rather than forming large heterogeneous organizations or groups (Kleemans et al., 1998; 2002; Staring et al., 2005; Van de Bunt and Kleemans, 2007). In most cases these networks consists of only a few traffickers who run all different aspects of the businness. Characteristic for most of these networks is the high level of violence used by the traffickers towards the female victims. Traffickers often try to take the women hostage by confiscating their identification documents, the money they earn or by the threat and even actual use of violence (Staring et al., 2005).

Recruiters are often acquainted with their victims. The traffickers look for women in their circle of friends in cafes, bars or in prostitution establishments. They promise a prospect of a well-paid position (prostitution or non-prostitution) with excellent working conditions. Because potential victims have neither the money, nor the connections, traffickers offer to arrange the necessary documents, including false identity papers or tickets. In a later stage, this debt bonding is often used as coercion (Vocks & Nijboer, 2000; Staring et al., 2005: 60-71). A more extreme method is the kidnapping or sale of women.

Exploiters use several ways to control victims, especially those without experience in prostitution, and withhold them from contacting the police or other organizations. According to Vocks & Nijboer (2000) these include:

• threat of or actual violence, rape and/or ill-treatment of the victim;
• threat or actual violence against the family of the victim;
• coercion by debt bonding;
• withholding money for a return ticket and seizure of identification papers;
• confinement of victims at their workplace;
• constant monitoring and prohibiting any contacts with family or friends;
• tattooing of victims without their consent (as a title-deed);
• selling or threat of selling to other pimps;
• threat of expulsion by the police;
• inducing fear about police corruption.

A recent study by Bovenkerk et al. (2006) on the so-called loverboy phenomenon in Amsterdam shows that this supposedly ‘new’ form of pimping is more complex than the simplistic image presented by media, help organizations, women and pimps themselves.⁴ While the authors do not deny this form of ‘modern’ pimping, they challenge dominant views and socially constructed stereotypes that have all the ingredients of moral panics and urban mythologies. Cases involving ‘bad’ Moroccans or Antilleans recruiting and exploiting ‘innocent’ native Dutch young women are far less prevalent than thought, involve old well-known methods of recruitment and exploitation of women, often imply initiative and manipulation from women themselves, and should be understood within the frame of risk society (management of ‘threats’ and enemies), multicultural conflicts (‘ethnicization’ of social problems), media culture (hip hop) and new forms of sexuality amongst Dutch youth.

More concerned with the situation of migrant women in the prostitution in the Netherlands and in their country of origin, Hopkins (2005) even talks about the ‘myth’ of women trade, a concept that only regards women as passive victims to be helped and rescued, while obscures more important projects (for the women) such as (labor) migration. Again, without denying exploitation and coercion by intermediaries (often men and women known to the women or from a close cultural or ethnic background), she shows the incoherence and futility of any perspective (and policy intervention) that ignores or denies these women their status and rights as labor migrants.

Legislation and Policies in the Netherlands

Although human smuggling and trafficking are often mentioned as synonyms and treated as equivalents, they do have a different history and refer to different topics. Human smuggling is first of all a newly defined crime in the Netherlands and, secondly, has always been directly related to controlling international migration. After 9/11, human smuggling is also increasingly connected with the global fight against international terrorism.

Human trafficking has a history dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century and traditionally has been associated with prostitution in Dutch criminal law. It is only in a much latter stage that Dutch government explicitly links human trafficking with global processes such as international migration and transnational organized crime (Nationaal Actieplan Mensenhandel, 2004). Attention for human trafficking increased especially after the break down of communist regimes in the early 1990s. Still, as the Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings (BNRM) already mentions in their first informative report (2002), human trafficking can occur within national territory, without victims crossing borders. Both crimes are framed within organized crime and dealt with by special teams within the National Criminal Investigation Service and both have their own information center: the IAM for human smuggling and the BNRM for human trafficking. A major difference between human smuggling and trafficking is that the latter crime has its roots in debates on morality whereas human smuggling started as a border control issue.

Most police regions suggest that human trafficking is high on their priority agenda (Hopkins & Nijboer, 2001). But police investigations into trafficking in human beings are difficult and time consuming. Communication with the victim is also very difficult, due to language barriers, re-emigrating victims as well as different cultural perceptions of sexuality and prostitution. The Public Prosecutor agrees that the police do not take up many trafficking cases. The lack of capacity is the main reason for the fact that a lot of offenders are not prosecuted. In 2003, 106 persons were sentenced for human trafficking (BNRM, 2005).

More than 90% of the suspects in the criminal women trafficking cases had residence in the Netherlands, but the majority of the apprehended traffickers were born in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Bulgaria and Albania (BNRM, 2005). The criminal network is most of the times spread over more than one country. For the Dutch Public Prosecutor it is hard to detect and prosecute people that live in non-EU countries. Most of the time only the Dutch part of the criminal network is prosecuted (Van Dijk, 2002).

Prostitution as such has never been illegal in the Netherlands as long as it was voluntary (Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2005). Clients are not punishable by law, unless those providing the sexual services are minors (art. 248c of the Criminal Code).

The Netherlands was then the first country in Europe to abolish the prohibition of brothels (Scholtes, 2000). The discussion to put an end to this prohibition started in the early 1980s, predominantly initiated by organized prostitutes, women’s organizations, and social and medical workers. The overall goal was to improve the position of prostitutes through legislation (Dütting, 2001). At that time, there were huge numbers of red-light windows, escort services, and prostitutes working on the streets or at home, all being endured and coerced. Illegal prostitutes lacking valid residence permits as other illegal immigrants living in the Netherlands, were by and large tolerated during the 1980s (Daalder, 2002). It was not until the last decade that Dutch policy makers gradually changed their attitude and started to develop policies aiming at marginalizing and excluding illegal immigrants from daily life in Dutch society (Engbersen et al., 2006).

The idea came to exist that prostitution was impossible to eliminate and thus it should be regulated in ways that would decrease the undesirable consequences (harm reduction), an approach also followed for example in the field of illegal drugs. The abolition of the ban on brothels from October 2000 was supposed to achieve the following six objectives (Goderie et al., 2002; Goderie & Boutellier, 2006: 16-17):

1. The control and regulation of the exploitation of prostitution;
2. Improving the combat of involuntary prostitution;
3. Protecting minors against sexual assaults;
4. Protecting the prostitute’s position in terms of exploitation, violence and bad working conditions;
5. Combating the links between crime and prostitution (drugs, firearms);
6. Protect the foreign nationals, who are illegally prostituting in the Netherlands.

Next to lifting the ban on brothels, the change of 2000 introduced article 250a in the Criminal Code (actually replacing the older 250 ter). This article mentioned the forms in which sexual exploitation of human beings were punishable: forced introduction or keeping of persons into prostitution; the introduction or keeping of minors into prostitution (voluntarily or not); or introducing persons from other countries into prostitution (voluntarily or not). According to article 250a it was also punishable to make profit from the aforementioned circumstances (Hopkins & Nijboer, 2001). In other words, article 250a made a distinction between legal exploitation of prostitution (voluntary and adults) and trafficking in human beings (involuntary, minors or cross-border).

Since 1 January 2005, article 273a came to replace article 250a from 2000, expanding human trafficking beyond the realm of sexual exploitation (prostitution). Next to criminalizing the exploitation of another person for the purpose of prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, article 273a also prohibits forced or compulsory labour or services, slavery, practices comparable with slavery or servitude, and trafficking in organs.

Anyone who forces another person to engage in prostitution, induces a minor to engage in prostitution, recruits, takes away or abducts a person to engage in prostitution in another country, profits from prostitution involving a minor, or forces another person to surrender the proceeds of prostitution is liable to a custodial sentence of up to 6 years and/or a fine up to €45,000. In the event of aggravating circumstances (the victim is under the age of 16 or if two persons committed the offence acting in concert), the sentence may be raised to a maximum of 10 years. If the offence involves serious physical injury or danger to life, the penalty may be raised to a maximum of 12 years and to a maximum of 15 years for loss of life (Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2005).

In the Netherlands, traffickers and exploiters can be prosecuted without a declaration of a victim. But in the interest of the investigation and the prosecution, it is often desirable that victims or eventual witnesses tell their story to the police (Hopkins & Nijboer, 2001). Victims can stay in the Netherlands for a longer period at the discretion of the Public Prosecutor. The so-called ‘B-9’ regulation serves this purpose (Pieters, 2006). Its additional purpose is to offer shelter and protection to the victims. The victim is offered a period of three months, in which she has to take a decision whether she wishes to make a declaration of trafficking in human beings. If the victim decides to make a declaration, then this declaration is officially considered as an application to the grating of a residence permit for a determined period of time. Since December 2004 victims are allowed to work under the ‘B-9’ ruling. It is however difficult for these women to find work. Some of the women want to earn some money and go back to their native country or go back in the illegal prostitution. According to the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), 122 women got a ‘B-9’ permit in 2001. After the trial, the victim is sent to the country of origin, which according to the National Reporter in Human Trafficking (BNRM, 2003), takes on average 6 months. Only if it’s too dangerous to go back, the victim can get a permanent permit (on humanitarian grounds). Only very few victims got a permanent permit in recent years.

The Effects of Law Enforcement Practices on Women Trafficking

The question of whether the aims of the legislative and policy changes introduced in 2000 concerning women trafficking have been achieved seven years later is important. The regulation and control of the licensed prostitution sector are tasks reserved for the local authorities. It is primarily the (local) police that strive to ensure that brothels satisfy the conditions of their licences. Brothels that fail to comply are liable for an administrative punishment or, depending on the violation, can be prosecuted for the offences covered by article 273a of the Criminal Code.

According to a recent evaluation report, all municipalities have almost completed the licensing process and carry out inspections to a greater or lesser extent. The police still play the most important role in monitoring the licensed sector, but lack, however, the capacity to monitor and investigate the unlicensed (illegal) sector. This situation is regarded as unfair by legal operators, undermining their willingness to comply with rules and cooperate with controls (Daalder, 2007).

The routine controls only shed light to a limited extent. The focus of these controls is on ‘law maintenance’ rather than on ‘investigation’ and ‘law enforcement’. As a consequence, the actors inside these brothels are treated as customers and tax payers rather than potential offenders. Not much effort is put into concealing these visits, and pimps as well as illegal prostitutes have all opportunities to hide, to flee and to inform other brothels and colleagues. Moreover, they mainly target sex operators in the window, escort and private home sectors, and not pimps operating mainly in the background. These controls can hardly present any insights into illegal prostitution, let alone human trafficking. Recently, several large police investigations on women trafficking in the Netherlands have shown that trafficking and related abuses continue to exist within the licensed sector, which in many cases even facilitated further financial exploitation of prostitutes (Van de Bunt, 2007).

There are various forms of displacement as a result of new regulations and controls. First, several sources indicate a shift from one type of business and setting to another. One trend is that both legal and illegal prostitution have moved from traditional public forms of prostitution (street, windows and brothels) to more private and invisible realms (backstage) such as the escort service (an extremely flexible notion with few rules and control), saunas, massage parlors, private houses, mobile phones or the internet. Of course, this shift from front- to backstage or invisible places is also influenced by more ‘autonomous’ market or technological developments such as the spread of internet and mobile phones, new media, migration fluxes or the diversification of erotic services (Goderie et al., 2002).

A second form of displacement implies internal movement from one place to another. Not so much the result of legalization, but much more a possible outcome of increased controls is the literal displacement of the phenomena towards another region or municipality with less strict regulations or enforcement (Daalder, 2007).

Due to displacement towards backstage places, the police is increasingly dependent on anonymous reports, tips, incidents, statements by witnesses or by the outcomes of routine controls. There is hardly any control on, for instance, the escort service. In those rare cases where they were controlled, it turned out that all escort agencies somehow committed an offence.

Asante & Schaapman (2005), in their research about the invisibility of the sex industry, are extremely sceptical about the positive impact of legalisation. According to them, legalisation of brothels may have signified to be a failure. In their opinion, without a law regulating escort services, legalisation is an empty promise.

The research of Goderie & Boutellier (2006) underlines the sceptical view of Asante and Schaapman. These researchers describe how, due to the legalisation of prostitution, the number of formal brothels has declined and how the majority of all prostitutes working in Rotterdam around early 2006 work illegally in backstage places instead of being formally employed in legal brothels.

Despite these facts, Daalder (2007) claims that it is ‘more likely’ that human trafficking has become more difficult after a section of the prostitution sector is more regulated and controlled. However, she points out the impossibility of producing reliable numbers to support that claim.

While in theory the social and labor situation of prostitutes working in the licensed sector has improved, almost all sources indicate that in practice many rights remain unfulfilled and that prostitution is far from being normalized.

Several researches show the unfortunate and negative consequences on the position of illegal prostitutes (Pot, 2003; Dütting, 2001; Asante & Schaapman, 2005). Illegal prostitutes are in fact migrant women, mainly from non-EU countries, who lack a residence permit but still sell sexual services in the Netherlands. Formally excluded from the ‘legalized’ sector and hunted from the streets, some still manage to work ‘legally’ by faking identities or evading controls, while most of them have been forced to work in more invisible and unregulated sectors, and still others have gone to work to other EU countries.

To conclude, there seems to exist a serious contradiction between the aim of protecting the women working illegally in the prostitution (basically non-EU nationals without residence permits), and other more prioritized aims such as ‘combating’ illegal prostitution and deporting illegal migrants to their countries of origin. Indeed, while the number of prostitutes from Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Colombia and Dominican Republic has decreased, women from East European countries with an EU passport have increased in all sectors (Daalder, 2007). Controls have been increased by the Dutch police in order to find and extradite illegal residents, in line with the overall more strict control of illegal migrants. Police experts also point at a more practical issue related to the circular movements of these prostitutes. Illegal prostitutes, who as a victim of human trafficking apply for the ‘B9’ regulation, can not be taken into custody, but should be protected and taken care of. It often turns out to be very difficult to find a proper shelter and these laborious efforts can even result in the victim disappearing. The Netherlands has still a long way to go before controlling and reducing forced prostitution and women trafficking.

Dr. Damián Zaitch holds a PhD in social sciences and is assistant professor at the Department of Criminology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam. After having extensively researched and published on cocaine trafficking and drug markets, he is currently interested in other forms of cross-border transnational organised and corporate crime including illegal drug markets, women trafficking, the meat industry and internet crime.

Dr. Richard Staring studied anthropology and is associate professor at the Department of Criminology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam. His main research focus is on crime and irregular migration. He is preparing a book on human smuggling and illegal immigrant in the Netherlands (Berghahn, 2008).

References

Asante, A. & Schaapmans, K. (2005). ‘Het onzichtbare zichtbaar gemaakt, prostitutie’ in Amsterdam anno 2005, 2nd edition. Amsterdam: PvdA fractie Amsterdam
Bovenkerk, F. et al. (2006). Loverboys of modern pooierschap. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Augustus.
Bureau Nationaal Rapporteur Mensenhandel (BNRM) (2002). ‘Mensenhandel - Eerste rapportage van de Nationaal Rapporteur’. The Hague: BNRM.
Bureau Nationaal Rapporteur Mensenhandel (BNRM) (2003). ‘Mensenhandel - Aanvullende kwantitatieve gegevens. Tweede rapportage van de Nationaal Rapporteur’. The Hague: BNRM.
Bureau Nationaal Rapporteur Mensenhandel (BNRM) (2004). ‘Mensenhandel - Derde rapportage van de Nationaal Rapporteur’. The Hague: BNRM.
Bureau Nationaal Rapporteur Mensenhandel (BNRM) (2005). ‘Mensenhandel, aanvullende kwantitatieve gegevens, vierde rapportage van de Nationaal Rapporteur’. The Hague: BNRM.
Bureau Nationaal Rapporteur Mensenhandel (BNRM) (2007). ‘Mensenhandel. Vijfde rapportage van de Nationaal Rapporteur’. The Hague: BNRM.
Daalder, A. (2002). ‘Het bordeelverbod opgeheven; prostitutie in 2000-2001’. The Hague: WODC / Boom.
Daalder, A. (2007). ‘Prostitutie in Nederland na opheffing van het bordeelverbod’. The Hague: WODC.
Dijk, D. M. H. van (2002). ‘Mensenhandel in Nederland 1997-2000’. Zoetermeer: KLPD/NRI.
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affaires (2005). ‘Dutch Policy on Prostitution. Questions and Answers 2005’. Retrieved on 01-03-2006 from: http://www.minbuza.nl/default.asp
Dütting, G. (2001). ‘Legalised prostitution in the Netherlands, recent debates. Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights’, Newsletter 72, May 2001. Retrieved on 01-03-2006 from: http://www.klaever.nl/open_document.asp
ECPAT (2003) ‘Minderjarigen in de prostitutie in Nederland, een quick scan’. Amsterdam: ECPAT
Engbersen, G., San, M. van & Leerkes, A. (2006). ‘A room with a view. Regular immigrants in the legal capital of the world’. Ethnography, 7, 2: 209-242.
Goderie, M. & Boutellier, H. (2006). ‘Prostitutie in Rotterdam’. Utrecht: Verwey-Jonker Instituut.
Goderie, M., Spierings, F. & Woerds, S. ter (2002). ‘Illegaliteit, onvrijwilligheid en minderjarigheid in de prostitutie één jaar na de opheffing van het bordeelverbod’. The Hague/Utrecht: Verwey-Jonker Instituut/WODC, Ministry of Justice.
Helm, Th. van der & Mens, L. van (1999). ‘Mobility in prostitution in the Netherlands 1998-1999’. Amsterdam: EUROPAP.
Hopkins, R. & Nijboer, J. (2001). Research based on case studies of victims of trafficking in human beings in 3 EU Member States, i.e. Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands. ‘Country report on the Netherlands’. Brussels: European Commission.
Hopkins, R. (2005). ‘Ik laat je nooit meer gaan. Het meisje, de vrouw, de handelaar en de agent’. Amsterdam: De Geus.
Kleemans, E.R., Berg, E.A. van den & Bunt, H.G. van de (1998). ‘Georganiseerde criminaliteit in Nederland. Rapportage op basis van de WODC-monitor’. The Hague: Ministry of Justice, WODC.
Kleemans, E.R., Brienen, M. & Bunt, H.G. van de (2002). ‘Georganiseerde criminaliteit in Nederland. Tweede rapportage op basis van de WODC-monitor’. The Hague: WODC / Boom
Luykx, F. & Soest, S. van (1999). ‘Inventarisatie prostitutie en mensenhandel in Nederland’, 1999. Zoetermeer: CRI.
Nationaal Actieplan Mensenhandel (NAM) (2004). ‘Aanvullende maatregelen van het kabinet in het kader van de aanpak van mensenhandel in Nederland’. Tweede Kamer 28638, 13.
Parlementaire Enquêtecommissie Opsporingsmethoden (1996). ‘Inzake opsporing’. The Hague: SDU.
Pieters, B. (2006). ‘Dutch criminal and administrative law concerning trafficking in and smuggling of human beings’. In E. Guild & P. Minderhoud (eds.) (2006), Immigration and criminal law in the European Union. The legal measures and social consequences of criminal law in member states on trafficking and smuggling in human beings. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
Pot, J. (2003). ‘Implicaties opheffing bordeelverbod’. Retrieved on 01-03-2006 from: http://www.wi. christenunie.nl/index.php
Scholtes, H.T.I. (2000). ‘Prostitutie’. Retrieved on 01-03-2006 from: http://www.wodc.nl/publicatie/ aanpakcriminaliteit/criminaliteitsproblemen/Prostitutie/#
Staring, R., Engbersen, G., Moerland, H. et al. (2005). De sociale organisatie van mensensmokkel. Uitgeverij Kerckebosch.
Stichting Tegen Vrouwenhandel (STV) (2004). ‘Jaarverslag 2003’. Amersfoort: STV.
Van de Bunt, H. (2007). ‘In het hart van de vergunde sector. Justitiële Verkenningen’, 2007/07. The Hague: WODC.
Van de Bunt, H. & Kleemans, E. (2007). ‘Georganiseerde criminaliteit in Nederland. Derde rapportage op basis van de WODC-monitor’. The Hague: Ministry of Justice, WODC.
Visser, J., Oomens, H.C.D.M. & Boerman, F.A. (2000). ‘Prostitutie in Nederland in 1999. De nulmeting, een jaar voor de invoering van de wet die de opheffing van het algemene bordeelverbod regelt’. Amsterdam: Mr. A. de Graaf Stichting
Vocks, J. & Nijboer, J. (2000). ‘The Promised Land: A Study of Trafficking in Women from Central and Eastern Europe to the Netherlands’. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, Vol. 8, Nr. 3, September 2000, pp. 379-388.
WODC (2004). ‘Aanpak Criminaliteit’. Retreived on 01-03-2006 in: http://www.wodc.nl/ publicatie/aanpakcriminaliteit/criminaliteitsproblemen/Prostitutie/basisfeiten

Notes

1. This article is one of the outcomes of research carried out by the authors in 2006-2007 on the demand for foreign trafficked women for prostitution in the Netherlands. The project also included Italian, Swedish and Romanian partners and was financed by the European Commission (AGIS programme). The full results are to be published in 2008 by Springer.
2. The Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings (BNRM) is an independent body appointed in 2000 with the main goal of collecting information on human trafficking and reporting on this to the Dutch government (BNRM, 2004: 6).
3. It turned out that the majority of the 90 exploited prostitutes worked in the legalised and controlled formal brothels (NRC Handelsblad, February 10, 2007).
4. Loverboys are usually portrayed in police and media reports in the Netherlands as a particular category of pimps: young men from ethnic minorities, more often Moroccan, with a career in petty crime, usually good looking, smartly dressed and behaving as wealthy ‘gentlemen’, who recruit and exploit Dutch or Dutch-Moroccan young girls by first becoming their boyfriends and then pushing them into prostitution.