Amsterdam swaps hookers for fashion
Published 14 March, 2008, 06:11
Amsterdam's busiest area – the red light district – is getting a makeover as part of a bid by the city's authorities to cut down on the number of sex workers. A new sort of window shopping has now arrived in the district, known as De Wallen – mannequins wearing designer clothes.
It's part of Amsterdam city council’s ‘Red Light Fashion’ project.
The city’s already bought several buildings from a former brothel baron for a reported 25 million euros, and handed them to young designers rent-free for a year.
Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, and the city council says it’s not trying to get rid of the business. But locals who work in the trade are suspicious.
Slim, a brothel keeper, says it’s like running a hotel. He’s keen to show how transparent his business is: Girls must show EU passports and they must be over 21.
“I am for prostitution but against forced prostitution. If a girl wants to rent a room and be her own boss that’s fine. I don’t want to do business with pimps,” Slim says.
He’s put up a Hungarian flag in his office to welcome the newer EU entrants who make up the vast majority of his clients.
But volunteers at Christian organisations that offer help to the working girls say that in these streets lie a thousand sad stories of lies and abuse.
“You can be in the European Union but forced, and many times that happens. I can’t understand why people don’t have an idea that there’s a human being behind it, and there's a story, and there's pain,” said Kryn De Jong from the Tot Heil Des Volks organisation.
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