Prostitution still remains taboo topic, causing lots of discussions about morality. Prostitution is considered as profession, crime, lifestyle or indispensable part of society. What is the truth about it?
The discussions either to legalize prostitution or not still doesn’t cease in the world, just as in Lithuania. This issue is different in the Netherlands, because legality-illegality problem has already been solved for years. Is it possible to legitimize such controversial profession as prostitution in the country with rather conservative society?
The legal prostitution in the Netherlands is due to the society. Dutch from the Middle Ages are famous for trading, that's why the class of wealthy traders was quite big. These people traveled a lot all over the world, facing various cultures and attitudes, thus creating original philosophy of life: I do not harm others if they do not harm me. It doesn't matter what they do, believe to or eat. Later, John Calvin, the man who brought Protestantism to Holland, criticized this attitude. Unfortunately, the quarrels between moralists and entrepreneurs are still very intensive.
Tolerance does not necessarily mean that everything is allowed, all the ideas are approved. If the Red Light District do not disturb normal citizens in the nearest neighborhood, prostitution as all the activities taking place there are tolerated. If clients begin making nuisance, noise or something else, decent Dutch calls the police or write his protest to local authorities. Here is the end of famous Dutch tolerance.
If in the other countries, meaning their mainstream societies, would be possible to embed such kind of tolerance principles, the life would be easier, but definitely not for Church, which is determined to protest against every kind of selling the body. There is no use to remind the perverseness of Roman Catholic popes, because recently John Paul II has apologized for all the sins committed by Church. However, the moralization in contemporary societies remains very strong and influent.
In the Netherlands discussions concerning prostitution are not about legality issues any more. In 1995 in Amsterdam the world prostitutes signed the declaration, where one of the most important requirements was to legitimize the prostitution as a profession. If prostitution is a profession, prostitutes themselves are "sexual relaxation workers", as now they are called in some Dutch circles. When prostitution becomes a legal profession, the state faces a huge amount of problems: creating the tax system, collecting these taxes, granting social security and paying retirement pensions to ex-prostitutes etc. The pimps shouldn't be forgotten also, because they organize these sexual services. They will have to pay taxes as well and be considered as normal employer with all entitlements and duties. Here something has been done by Dutch policy makers, because pimps in Amsterdam in order to organize sexual business legally must have licenses, which could be taken away if they do not fit the requirements of prostitutes' accommodation or tread them badly. This kind of policy only confirms the idea that prostitution is useful for society. The state, recognizing prostitution a legal profession will benefit also, because so far sexual workers earn enormous sums of money: the independent window prostitute makes 1,000-1,700 (about 1,700-2,500 Lt) guilders a shift, sometimes even more. This is when the work is legal. The bigger part of prostitution business is illegal and in most cases even criminal.
The prostitution in the Netherlands as elsewhere begins wit a serious crime: women recruitment. Recruitment is the business of criminal gangs, because it has to be very organized. In the beginning the mobs find girls. They could be stupid trustful country-side girl for whom are said that they will go to the Western Europe as babysitters or cafe kitchen workers or naive woman seduced by promising advertisement in newspapers. The traffickers take away their documents and make false ones instead. Afterwards women are trafficked sometimes in awful conditions, for instance in the truck full of meat or other stuff. To prevent girls from running away and complaining to local authorities, criminals threaten, beat them, sometimes even rape and take pictures or shoot a video. In the case of intention of running and complaining these pictures and videos can be sent to girl's parents or relatives.
The girls are sold to brothel keepers or pimps, who usually take advantage on them. Some pimps behave well with them (in the Netherlands they are called "bonfide"), but the bigger part of pimps (“malafide”) is not so good. Girls are forced to work 16 hours or more a day, live in the same place where work, all the money they earn they have to give to their pimp. This way victims pay so called "debt bondage": the money the pimp spent on their trafficking, documents etc. Usually such kind of debt longs quite long, so pimp benefit. Women work not alone, they know each other. In order to prevent them from plot, the pimp sell them to his colleagues after some time. By the way girls are not very rebellious, because every protest can be "fired down" very cruelly: the pimp can beat them, blackmail them, because he know where prostitutes' parents live. If the victims somehow complain to police, they are granted the security and the residence and work permit is given, but only until the case against the pimp is over. After judge's decision, prostitutes are sent to the country where they were brought or came from.
These are very common cases, but after sending them back home, some of prostitutes return to work in sex industry. By the way, in another status: independently. Independent prostitutes do not have pimps. They only rent the window for a shift and what they earn is theirs. The rent for shift is not very big. 100-150 guilders (about 160-240 Lt), so soon they become quite rich. Usually Dutch and girls from EU countries work independently, because they do not need permit to live in the Netherlands. For Easter Europeans and other non-EU women faces lots of difficulties trying to settle here legally because in order to rent a flat one need to prove that he or she is staying legally in the country. The way to become legal resident is to marry the citizen of Holland. Women do that and then the residence and working permits are given. The marriages in most cases are fictive and some girls even pay for right to be a wife of Dutch man. After three years they can get citizenship, so girls usually divorce and work on and for their own.
In the last years more and more illegal prostitutes know where are they going and what kind of work they are going to do. Lithuanian girls also became more cautious and understanding that sometimes after the advertisement "wanted dancer" the illegal prostitution is hidden.
The demand for Eastern European girls in western sex industry is rapidly increasing. Not because everybody got bored of Asians or Africans who are considered as exotic ones but because women from Eastern Europe are even more intellectual than Dutch ones. Some of them graduated from universities and got degrees of economists, teachers or even lawyers, know at least two foreign languages, do not require too much help and the most important thing for a pimp: do not trust Dutch police. There was an opportunity to observe Amsterdam and Utrecht Red Light Districts, where old and fat black prostitutes are waiting for their clients very long while girls from Eastern Europe, who are attractive also, are busy all the shift.
Dutch police looks at all prostitution issues and crimes in quite a tolerant way, except the trafficking in women, of course. Street prostitutes are not allowed to stand where they want because the special standing zones had been established, so when the girls go out of the zones, police take them and instead of taking to the jail, bring them back to these standing zones. Usually policemen know each street prostitute personally, because there are not a lot of them. These women are drug addicted, so not only police, but also various special organizations try to help them.
In the Netherlandsthe prostitutes have their own rights. Despite their activities they are still the citizens, that’s why they experience all citizen rights (voting, right to property, right to get social security etc.) The main achievement in prostitutes’ work is not to give sexual service if the client refuses to use condoms. Women have mobile phones, so sometimes very persistent clients persuading that fucking without condom is the same as licking honey through the jar glass are simply thrown out by pimp, special security guys or even police. Girls also visit doctor every week to check the health because they must have the license that they can work this job.