The police officer is shocked when he logs in via the digital system early one November morning. His team has been tracking an alleged human trafficker for months, but a few hours before they want to arrest him, the man turns out not to be at his hiding place in The Hague. The police trace his car on the highway between The Hague and Noordwijk via highway cameras.
At Noordwijk the car leaves the highway and appears to have entered a holiday park. But which one? There are four parks with wooden chalets close together. The detectives use a trick to determine the location of the alleged exploiter. A few hours later the man is arrested – four Colombian women are also staying with him in the holiday home.
The police and the judiciary have their hands full with criminals who bring women from Latin America to the Netherlands for illegal prostitution. Several such networks have been dismantled in recent years. For example, an Amsterdam woman was caught who had women from Colombia and Venezuela work for her illegal prostitution business and in 2021 a large network was dismantled that illegally helped transgender women in particular into prostitution.
Friday is ‘changeover day’ and the women are driven to another park by drivers
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the man’s arrest at the end of November in the holiday park led to the dismantling of a gang that has illegally helped “at least dozens” of Colombian women into prostitution over the past six months, some of whom have been exploited.
Between 2022 and 2023, the number of human trafficking victims from Latin America doubled, according to a study by the national rapporteur on human trafficking published on Tuesday: from 53 to 124. These are victims who have been reported to the Coordination Center by the police, military police and the Labor Inspectorate, among others. against Human Trafficking (CoMensha). In 2019, this was still 27. The victims mainly come from Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela.
South American women and trans people are fleeing “poor conditions in their native country and the high levels of (gang) violence,” according to the rapporteur’s research. The women are sent from country to country in Europe. Some of them did the same work in their home country.
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The investigation into the Colombian women from the holiday park starts with a sex worker who reports to the police. A pimp stole 10,000 euros from her. The man appears to be known to the police and has been spotted with prostitutes before.
Colombian women often come from poor families and come to the Netherlands via Spain on a tourist visa. The alleged exploiter’s accomplices advertise the women online. To attract additional customers, they offer as many services as possible online, says Menno, operational specialist at the police and involved in the investigation. For security reasons, he wishes to be referred to only by his first name. “Poop and pee sex, without a condom. Things you don’t often see a regular prostitute doing.”
A driver takes the women to the chalets in a holiday park, where they receive customers. Friday is ‘changeover day’ and the women are driven to another park by the drivers. In a few months, the man wears out as many as forty parks, according to police officer Menno.
In this way he hoped to stay under the radar, says public prosecutor Anne de Leeuw, who specializes in human trafficking, who is leading the investigation into the Colombian women. The alleged exploiter also has no fixed address and rarely makes phone calls; He mainly sends orders via short messages on the social media channel Snapchat. The man was arrested because teams from different units worked together.
The Colombian women come from poor families and do not speak English – let alone Dutch. “They often have no idea where the Netherlands is,” says Menno. They give half of their income – 150 to 200 euros per customer – to the man. According to officer De Leeuw and police officer Menno, he has earned more than a hundred euros from the women in the past six months – possibly much more.
Victims fear reprisals against family and loved ones in their country of birth and therefore do not dare to report the crime, writes the national rapporteur and De Leeuw agrees.
One woman has reported human trafficking against the man and another woman is considering doing so. De Leeuw and police officer Menno hope that forty seized telephones will provide further evidence.
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Crime
Not all South American victims themselves feel that they are being exploited, the rapporteur writes. Because work in the Netherlands is “safer, customers are more respectful” and they are better paid, Latin American sex workers do not always see themselves as victims, according to the rapporteur. Menno and De Leeuw also encounter this in their research.
The Colombian women are not locked up in the chalets, but cannot go anywhere without transportation, says De Leeuw. They are also dependent on the exploiter in terms of income and residential location. De Leeuw: “These are not sophisticated Dutch prostitutes, everything is decided for them: when they have sex, with whom and how often.” According to the officer, the fact that the women have no problem paying half their wages, because they still earn a multiple of what they have left in their home country, does not matter legally. “This is exploitation.”
The alleged exploiter has no fixed address and rarely calls; He mainly sends orders via messages on Snapchat
In court, fellow officers in South American human trafficking cases often weaken the charges over time: from human trafficking (twelve years in prison, and thirty years if it results in death) to human smuggling – a less serious crime, writes the rapporteur in her report. A missed opportunity: “Many Latin American sex workers” have “strong indications of human trafficking.” In this way, “no justice” is done “to the situation in which these victims find themselves.”
According to Public Prosecutor De Leeuw, providing information to counter staff in holiday parks can ensure that abuses are discovered earlier. She also hopes that rounding up exploitation gangs will have a deterrent effect and that other exploiters will avoid the Netherlands. According to police officer Menno, the arrest in the holiday park is a “drop in the ocean” in the fight against human trafficking networks that recruit Latin American women and trans people. There are so many women coming this way, he says. Still, it makes sense. “We helped a few girls.” Entrepreneurs come in because of the exploitation of migrant workers on asylum ships