Amsterdam sex workers protest against new rules seeking to tame red light district
- Amsterdam officials say a set of reforms designed to rebrand the city’s wild image will help reduce crime and nuisance behaviour in the area
- The Dutch capital’s famed prostitution windows will now close three hours earlier, at 3am – and sex work businesses could soon move to a different part of town
Sex workers in Amsterdam say they are being unfairly targeted by city plans to tame its red light district.
Known as De Wallen, the city’s centuries-old district takes its nickname from the red neon lights that highlight the 300 windows where sex workers can offer their services.
But the Dutch capital’s famed prostitution windows will now close earlier – and they could soon move to a different part of town.
Amsterdam officials say a set of reforms designed to rebrand the city’s wild image will help reduce crime and nuisance behaviour in the area, but opponents of the measure say the move will only increase stigma as it uses sex workers as a scapegoat for a much larger problem: the city’s issues with mass tourism.
Last month, the municipality said it would ban the smoking of marijuana. And as of April 1, sex work businesses will be forced to close their doors three hours earlier, at 3am.
The changes come amid talks of moving the sex workers to a large “erotic centre” away from the heart of the city.
“We really don’t agree with the solutions that they are offering, that they’re imposing. They’re not even negotiating with the sex workers’ organisations,” sex worker Sabrina Sanchez told Agence France-Presse on Thursday.