The city of Amsterdam announced on Thursday that it would invest up to 15 million euros (US$21 million) to help clean up its famous red light district by buying brothels there.
The city will help a real estate developer buy 51 storefront windows where prostitutes ply their trade to convert them into apartments or commercial premises.
Although prostitution has been legal in the Netherlands since 2000, the city is trying to bring about a voluntary clean-up of Amsterdam's famous red light district.
PHOTO: AP
City mayor Job Cohen told a news conference that the deal announced on Thursday represented "a big step."
"Since the legalization in 2000, things have changed," Cohen said. "The law was created for voluntary prostitution but these days we see trafficking of women, exploitation and all kinds of criminal activity."
The Wallen, as the prostitution district is known in Dutch, is one of the oldest and most picturesque areas of Amsterdam and draws hoards of tourists, although they mainly flock there to gawk at the women.
"It is not about chasing prostitution of the Wallen, but it's about fighting crime," Cohen stressed.
City council member responsible for finance Lodewijk Asscher said closing down the prostitute windows should not have a negative impact on tourism.
"We are talking about what we call vertical drinkers, people who walk around the district drink in hand and never even sit down in the area's bars and restaurants," he said of the tourists attracted to the area.
"What's more important? A tourist attraction or women who are victims. It's modern slavery," Asscher said.
However, the Dutch sex workers' union De Rode Draad criticized the plans.
"We believe that less windows means more exploitation of women," spokeswoman Metje Blaak said.
"If the windows close down, women who are being exploited will be hidden somewhere else where union representatives and health workers can't make contact with them. The city should go after pimps, not real estate," Blaak said.
Real estate developer NV Stadsgoed agreed to pay 25 million euros to buy the storefront windows from red light district kingpin Charles Geerts.
Prostitutes hire the windows for approximately 100 euros for part of the day and one window usually has several prostitutes per day, making it a very lucrative business to hire the windows out.
The city of Amsterdam has earmarked up to 15 million euros to compensate the loss of value when the prostitutes are no longer there.
Under the deal with the municipality, Geerts is not allowed to invest the money he earns in the red light district again. Even if he invests outside the Wallen, he is not allowed to invest in prostitution, gambling or coffee shops -- cannabis cafes allowed to sell marijuana.
The 51 prostitutes' windows to be closed represent around one third of such windows in the red light district.
The city of Amsterdam last autumn announced plans to clean up the area, which has been the city's prostitution zone for more than one hundred years.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of