The situation out of Trafficking
Trafficking showed up into the political agenda shortly after pressure out-of feminists and you may the fresh federal ladies rules department. Originally, feminine have been trafficked out-of The southern part of China (notably Thailand and the Philippines), Latin The united states (Columbia plus the Dominican Republic and Africa (Ghana); following slide of Berlin Wall surface, exchange paths managed to move on so you can Central and you can East European countries. Political need was in fact identifying the fresh offence significantly more generally to help you facilitate prosecution and you will increasing the punishment off 5 to 6 ages, making sure that culprits would-be held in the remand custody. The latest content on the penal code with the human trafficking was indeed modified during the 1993, which have a very right definition of brand new offense and higher penalties getting traffickers (Outshoorn 2004a: 195). The fresh new blogs was presented when you look at the good gender-neutral ways, and you may trafficking stayed recognized as pressuring a man toward prostitution.
In the parliamentary debates on trafficking around that period, foreign women were portrayed as victims of unscrupulous traffickers tricked into prostitution. This framing was tied into a discourse about the divide between the rich and poor countries: female prostitutes from the ‘Third World’ were driven by poverty. Gradually, a more insidious edge crept into this discourse when Christian Democrats in parliament linked trafficking to illegal migration, opening a space for ‘false’ victims, who used the loopholes in the law to work illegally as a prostitute in the Netherlands (HTK, 1991–1992, TK 81, pp. 4994, 4995, e time they also started to argue that all women from non-EU countries working in the sex industry were victims of forced prostitution. Therefore in their view, the best remedy to stop trafficking was to prevent non-EU women from working in the Dutch sex industry in the first place. This reasoning eradicated the figure of a woman migrant deciding to work as a sex worker in the West and who might make use of intermediaries to enter the country-with her consent. But then she was ‘illegal’ and ought to be deported.
Successive cabinets continued to refuse work permits on similar grounds, also arguing there was no national interest at stake which normally justifies extending work permits to non-EU persons. They were backed by a recurring majority in parliament; the parliamentary records show many references to the fear of foreign prostitutes entering the country which would subvert immigration policies. The fear resurfaced in the memorandum to the bill to lift the brothel ban, as one of the aims of the bill was to halt ‘the stream of foreign prostitutes’ (HTK 1996–97, 25437 (Opheffing Algemeen Bordeelverbod), no. 3 (Memorie van Toelichting), 1 July 1997, p. 13). The refusal to grant work permits was also generally justified by the aim of stopping the trafficking of women; permits would encourage traffickers to transport women into the country.
Kinds of Sex Gurus
Subsequent implementation of the work triggered the building off no lower than four categories of prostitutes. First of all, you have the ethnically vague Dutch sex employee who willingly determines to be effective inside the prostitution that is this new bearer away from municipal and you can societal rights. Subsequently, you can find the fresh prostitutes from other European union places that will move freely in-and-out of the Netherlands and work in the brand new sex industry. This category put into several categories following the accession into Eu of the Baltic Says, Poland, Hungary, the fresh new Czech Republic and you will Slovakia for the 2004, and work out a 3rd classification just who is only able to legally become prostitutes once they was in fact independent sex professionals rather than teams. When you look at the 2007, sex gurus regarding the latest European union people had been accepted to the a keen equivalent ground on old Eu associate professionals, but the third classification is today full of sex workers away from Bulgaria and you can Romania when both places registered this new European union in that exact same 12 months. Like their predecessors, this type of ladies are permitted to work as independent a fantastic read sex pros, but up to now not as personnel.