The Dutch metropolis of Amsterdam wants to expand its prostitution area, because the legendary red light district in the city center is now too crowded. In the future, sex workers will also be able to work in other parts of the city where there is more space and more discretion – for example in newly-built brothels:
This is what the draft of the left-green governing coalition in the city parliament, which was presented on Friday, provides. Currently public prostitution in Amsterdam is limited to the notorious Wallen district near the train station. In the narrow streets, prostitutes behind glass panes offer themselves to the suitors. The problem is that more and more tourists are coming here for snapshots.
The real suitors stay away, and the sex workers feel annoyed by the tourist rush. Hardly anonymity „We want to give the sex workers the option of not only working at home or in the tourist district, where they have much less anonymity,“ said City Councilor Alexander Hammelburg of the left-liberal party D66.
The new regulation should also solve the problem of „lack of legal work rooms for sex workers“. In the future, hotel-like brothels could then be built in other parts of the city, as they have not existed yet. Amsterdam has taken a number of measures to deal with the onslaught of tourists. Renitente party tourists now have to pay heavy penalties if they loudly offend on the street. In addition, certain inner-city areas have been regularly closed to tourists for cleaning since August. Around 18 million tourists come to Amsterdam every year – more than the entire population of the Netherlands.
