City of Amsterdam opens sex club owned by sex workers

Word around is that the capital of Netherlands got it’s new sex club! Yet, it’s no ordinary sex club of course! Who would share news about something which is quite common nowadays in Europe? The catch is  – it’s run by sex workers. Many doors have opened because of it, since now they’ll be their own lawmakers.

The new sex club is something else

The red light district in Amsterdam has got its sex club established in May and the credit goes to the mayor of the city, Eberhard van der Laan. He is in power since 2010. “It’s a whole new model” says the mayor. The main goal of the city council was to expand the privileges for sex workers. As result of gaining that initiative, crime rate in sex clubs has curbed.

Organizers brought up the plan years earlier. Sex workers and the council have been working on improving it ever since. Like mentioned before, the main concept was to establish rules favorable for the girls. That means normalizing their working conditions by depriving them from connections with pimps or any other agent or go-betweens. These listed above take away a descent cut from their salary, usually by their will. This new law for this sex club would immediately make the girls independent, at least more than they were.

After this project succeeded, the Dutch labeled this sex club as “municipal brothel” due to governments involvement. It occupies 14 windows across 4 buildings on Wallen, the red light district of Amsterdam. These premises were bought by a sex club owner Charles Geerts. He is notorious for his sex club monopoly, owning more than 60 windows in his prime. In 2008,  he sold 17 of his properties for 25 million euros. The municipality payed half of stated amount. One of the buyers he sold his properties to, sold the property again to the organization “My Red Light”.

Opportunity for sex workers

The foundation gives an opportunity for 40 sex workers to start working at the sex club. Sex workers chose the whole interior themselves, to create a perfect ambient for their fully-content and intimate operating.

They chose the flamboyance, carpets, lights, room decorations, statues, plants and other as well. The realization of their desires was fullfilled by a interior designer. In terms like these, they can feel like they’re surrounded by family and friends, where they can be who they really are. It’s pretty inviolable. The sex club is multi-practical, possessing special rooms for disabled clients as well, which is a huge improvement.

The profit which the club is getting is used for liberating sex workers all across Amsterdam, and the Netherlands ultimately. Fight against crime among sex clubs thanks to this monetary initiative is quite real.

Prostitution and a sex club is legal in the Netherlands

If you’re wondering, prostitution has been legal in Netherlands since the new millennium 2000. The leading sex club obligations are to respect the urban or municipal rules and laws. Obtaining an official license for spreading this kind of work is also mandatory. As of the new law from 2000, prostitutes are considered as a legal profession. Meaning that like any other employees, they need to pay taxes.

By establishing prostitution as an legal act, the Dutch government  created a clean way of sexual propaganda. Cleansing the filth that are the immoral pimps was a huge deal.

Unlikely of it, the crime rate wasn’t affected as much. Human traffickers are spread out through entire Amsterdam like before legalization. It’s due to the traffickers’ connection with criminal gangs from other parts of Europe.

Even by the governments new initiative back in 2007, they haven’t quite resolved the crime problem in Amsterdam. Namely, they have imposed closing windows all across Wallen to directly stop the whole crime chain, or at least they thought it did. It had a major side-effect on the prostitutes, that in the end, they were the ones suffering new governments deeds. Since there were less windows, the supply and demand relationship remained unbalanced, so the price for a single window went sky-high! Owners forced sex workers to pay for their window, even when they’re not operating. Those are non-working days, holidays and illness excuses.

In June 2012 a 5-year prostitution program was initiated to put a stop on those ill-mind human traffickers and their deeds.

Will be crime stopped?

Finally, with this brand new law, the crime will allegedly be put up to a stop. We will see in the future in which direction the plan is going, as well as it’s progress. Marieke de Ridder, member of the board “My Red Light” stated that the sex workers will be their bosses themselves. They can set their own rental terms and adjust working hours. He also said that they’ll have their social lounge where no clients are allowed, where they can discuss important sex club matters, as well as bringing up their issues in the business.

Sonja Pol, manager of the prostitution program of Amsterdam, said that everything was done to start the project up. Studies about the case, risks of launching it , finding competent parties which will be taking control of the program later and finding investors for the projects – all that was done for program establishment. These were all the cities duties and commitment, but, in the next two years, they will only be supervisors of the program’s development. She also added that by liberating sex workers from third parties makes them feel independent. It meant that they can work on their business improvement, as on their personal growth.

The “My Red Light” organization was grant a loan from a Dutch bank to start up their business. A Healthcare institution is covering and guaranteeing the sex workers health check-ups along with it.

The success of sex club is not yet guaranteed

Yet, there’s still speculations on the problem-solving of the program. Karin Werkman questions the programs decency since it’s not guaranteed that the sex workers won’t have pimps or some authority above them in control of them. She states that prostitution is a form of a sexual exploitation by its essence, so it’s contradictory not to have crime involved in the matter. Who will guarantee that the people will be informed that pimps are still pulling sex worker’s strings behind all their acts, she asked.

Karin also thinks that the “My Red Light” project only aspires empowering sex workers to get on bigger business positions. It still does keep them inferior to their third parties, yet vulnerable to exploitation.

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