August
31, 2001, Friday
New
Rights for Dutch Prostitutes, but No Gain
By
SUZANNE DALEY
In
the lounge of his brothel, Andre van Dorst sits in the
glow of a red lamp shaped like a huge voluptuous mouth
and slaps document after document on the table -- from
the health department, from the police, from the tax
department, the labor department.
''They
just go on and on,'' he fumes. ''This one says how the
girls have to wash their frilly underthings in practically
boiling water. And this one says they have to cut their
nails very short. For hygiene purposes, of course. And
here they have to have a pillow in the room. You don't
want a pillow in your room. It's a murder weapon.''
Like
many an entrepreneur, he laments, ''The bureaucrats
are busy making rules and they know nothing about the
business.''
Prostitution
has long been legal in the Netherlands, but now the
nation is trying to invent a system to regulate the
industry. Nine months ago it legalized brothels.
The
new law is intended to help the police get a grip on
the often suspicious world of prostitution, basically
a cash business that the police say is often used for
money laundering, arms sales, drug sales and the often
brutal exploitation of prostitutes, including minors
and illegal immigrants.
And
the law is supposed to offer the more than 30,000 women
who work as prostitutes in the Netherlands the chance
to get the basic labor rights, insurance policies and
disability payments enjoyed by other citizens.
But
the transition has been a bumpy one.
Police
officials say they finally have the means to clean up
the sex industry. But brothel owners are complaining
that they are being inundated with stupid rules and
overwhelmed by renovation costs that may force them
to close. Meanwhile, prostitutes are complaining that
the law that was supposed to help them has so far only
handed them a tax bill.
The
Dutch, it turns out, are far less tolerant than expected.
Legalization
has done nothing to diminish the taboo associated with
the sex trade. Prostitutes who are trying to set themselves
up as self-employed businesswomen are finding that accountants,
banks and health insurance companies want nothing to
do with them.
And
many experts are worried, too, that the new law is simply
pushing a huge number of prostitutes underground, where
they are at greater risk of being taken advantage of.
This group includes illegal immigrants, who fear being
sent out of the country if they register, and Dutch
citizens who are not ready to go public with what they
do.
''I
have often doubted since we legalized the brothels,
whether we did the right thing,'' said Femke Halsema,
a member of Parliament who advocated the measure. ''For
me, it was a question of emancipation and liberation
for the women. But for now it is working the other way.''
Last
year, there were nine women working in Mr. van Dorst's
brothel, which operates behind his sex shop in the main
shopping area of this prosperous town about an hour's
drive from Amsterdam. Today, there are only two who
take their customers up the steep stairs to two windowless
rooms with pink bedspreads and floor-to-ceiling mirrors.
They charge about $60 for sex. Mr. van Dorst gets about
$20 of that for renting the rooms.
One
of the women who has worked here for about 10 years
said that some of the prostitutes simply left the business
because they did not want to lose their anonymity by
registering with the police and paying taxes.
Others,
she said, were still selling sex, but in a more dangerous
way. They advertise in local magazines and meet their
customers in hotel rooms. To do this, most rely on a
pimp for protection.
''I
don't see anything good about the law,'' she said. ''The
whole thing is crazy.''
No
one is yet calling for a repeal of the law. Most prostitute
advocacy groups maintain that the legalization of brothels
will be a good thing in the long run. But right now,
they say, too little money has been spent on getting
information to the prostitutes about how to comply with
and benefit from the law, or on campaigns to encourage
community acceptance.
''It's
chaotic out there right now,'' said Mariska Majoor,
a former prostitute who runs the Prostitution Information
Center in Amsterdam's red light district. ''It's not
good for anybody. Most of the prostitutes don't have
any idea where they are in all of this.''
In
changing its laws on brothels, the Netherlands is again
in the forefront of social and legal innovation. This
year the country became the first in the world to legalize
euthanasia and to give same-sex marriages the status
of heterosexual marriages. As usual, what happens here
is being carefully studied by the rest of Europe.
Legalizing
brothels had been under debate for nearly two decades
before it became law on Oct. 1 last year. In the 1980's,
experts say, the debate revolved around feminist arguments
of empowerment. But by the 90's, as the industry grew,
it was law enforcement concerns that carried the day.
The law finally passed easily, with a two-thirds majority
in the upper house.
''What
we saw over time is that the Ministry of Social Services
faded into the background and the Ministry of Justice
took on a bigger and bigger role in putting forward
the legislation,'' said Marieke van Doorninck, an expert
at the Mr. A. de Graaf Foundation for research on prostitution.
''The emphasis today has been to get legal control over
a work place that was a great cover for all sorts of
illegal activity. The emphasis has not been on decent
labor conditions.''
The
new law leaves licensing up to local governments, but
few have put their systems in place. Mr. van Dorst,
who has been in business in Apeldoorn for two decades
and is the spokesman for the Dutch Federation of ''Relax
Center'' Owners, has applied for his new license but
is still waiting to receive it.
And
he is deep in battle with the tax department about whether
he is an employer and therefore has to pay social service
costs for the prostitutes. He maintains that he is not,
that he simply rents out rooms to the women. They set
their own prices, he says.
But
the issue, he admits, is far from resolved and in the
meantime his business is suffering because of the lack
of workers.
''It's
like that for all us,'' Mr. van Dorst said. ''The idea
was to make it better for the girls. But right now they
are all in hiding. We had a meeting of the federation
recently and most people were doing 40, 50 percent of
their business. This is not good for the girls either.''
Most
experts estimate that the sex industry is now a $1 billion
business in the Netherlands, or 5 percent of the Dutch
economy, with the industry having increased 25 percent
in the last decade.
At
any hour of the day, women of all ages and races, dressed
in scanty underwear can be seen in the Netherlands'
red light districts perched provocatively in windows.
People who enter these brothels usually find themselves
in tiny, tiled rooms with only a single bed and a sink.
Sex generally costs about $30 here. But the industry
has many layers, from street prostitution to expensive
escort services.
Experts
estimate that as many as 60 percent of the women working
in prostitution are foreigners, but no one knows how
many of those women are illegal immigrants or how many
are coerced into the business.
Some
women are expected to drink with clients, because the
brothel owner makes money from the alcohol. Some are
expected to submit to exams by brothel doctors who charge
them high rates. Some also have little say in whether
or not they accept customers.
Advocates
of the law see it as a means of making sure that the
worst conditions are eliminated.
''Before,
we could not even go and ask for ID papers, '' said
Rob Coster, the Police Department's national coordinator
on prostitution and the trafficking in human beings.
''Now there will be all sorts of inspections. The licensing
process allows us to deal with city planning issues,
health issues and operations, such as whether the prostitute
is a minor and working of her own free will.''
But
government officials acknowledged that some of the rules
dictated by the bureaucrats have been ludicrous.
''So
far it is true that they have all the duties but none
of the advantages that they were promised,'' said Jola
Vollebregt, a police policy adviser on the issue. ''We
never expected that the Dutch society would react the
way they reacted. Legalization does not mean acceptance.
''
Some
prostitutes are fighting back. Last month, Christy ten
Broeke, a board member of the Red Thread, an advocacy
group for prostitutes, testified before the country's
Committee on Equal Treatment about the way banks have
been treating those who declare themselves prostitutes
and ask for business accounts so that expenses like
lingerie and sex toys can become tax deductions.
Ms.
ten Broeke said she had gone into several banks herself
to see what happened and been flatly refused at every
one.
Called
on to respond, bank officials told the committee that
giving business accounts to prostitutes would give them
a bad image and anger other customers. Ms. ten Broeke
says that efforts to get health insurance have been
equally problematic.
But
for many prostitutes, the first problem is going public
with what they do.
''They
have children who are in school,'' said Ms. ten Broeke.
''Their parents, sometimes their husbands, don't know
what they do. They don't want it written down anywhere.''
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Copyright
2001 The New York Times Company
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