New legislation aimed at combating human trafficking actually makes it easier for pimps to exploit foreign prostitutes. This is what Maarten Noordzij, National Human Trafficking Officer at the Public Prosecution Service since September, contradicts NRC. The new law must come into effect in 2026 and will be debated in the House of Representatives next month.
When the criminal law was renewed, an important part was deleted because it was considered redundant, making it much more difficult to prove sexual exploitation of foreign women. This section – ‘sub 1, paragraph 3’ – makes it a criminal offense to recruit, take or kidnap persons with the aim of having them engage in prostitution ‘in another country’. This is useful if the police and the judiciary have indications of exploitation but no hard evidence and want to investigate this further. The police and the judiciary are very concerned about this, especially now that the number of criminal investigations into gangs that sexually exploit Chinese, Latin American and Romanian women has increased significantly in recent years. For example, 38 investigations into sexual exploitation of foreign women are currently underway, according to Noordzij. Last year there were significantly fewer.
During the consultation round of the new law, the Public Prosecution Service insisted that the section in question should not be deleted. The previous government did not respond to that call.
The new legislation threatens to make the Netherlands a “free haven for human traffickers”, says Noordzij: “Pimps of foreign women can already do their thing relatively unhindered and are thus becoming extremely wealthy. This is only going to get worse.”
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Mistake
The core is the ‘modernization’ of Article 273f of the Criminal Code on human trafficking. The aim of this modernization is to improve the prosecution of perpetrators and the protection of victims. And it must be easier to bring the exploiters of vulnerable migrant workers to justice.
The current article of the law – the longest article of the Criminal Code – has been shortened and simplified. Penal provisions that are unnecessary, according to the previous government, will be deleted.
According to Noordzij, a ‘mistake’ has been made on the latter point: an essential part of the law has been deleted, subsection 1, paragraph 3′. This is particularly useful when the police and the judiciary have indications of exploitation but no hard evidence. For example, when the police checks a car containing a pimp and a woman who has been brought to the Netherlands from a poor country for prostitution. The woman is completely dependent on the man for sex work and gives (more than) half of her income to him. Moreover, for a conviction via this route, it is not necessary that the ‘coercive means’, such as the use of force, has been proven.
With the new law, the ‘intent of exploitation’ must also be proven: that is legally much more complicated
The new law must also prove the ‘intent of exploitation’. Legally this is much more complicated and, according to Noordzij, it means that the judiciary must prove intent and coercion. While previously it was sufficient to assume that the woman in question would be exploited as a prostitute.
According to Noordzij, it is no longer enough if a foreign woman is brought to the Netherlands for prostitution, gives up more than half of her income and does not decide for herself with whom and how often she has sex. The Public Prosecution Service must therefore prove coercion, he says, for which it often has to rely on a statement from the victim. But they usually do not want to talk to the police for fear of reprisals.
Distressing human trafficking cases will therefore fail or will more often be dismissed as human smuggling cases – a less serious crime with a much lower penalty, Noordzij explains. “That gives us a stomach ache, because we would like to prosecute for exploitation. That does justice to what happened to the sex worker.”
According to it Ministry of Justice and Security the deleted part has been ‘almost completely’ replaced by another part of the law.
Flight
The change in the law worries the officer because the number of foreign sex workers coming to the Netherlands is increasing “enormously”. “Time and again we come across WhatsApp groups with hundreds of foreign prostitutes who end up in illegal prostitution here through intermediaries.” Two-thirds of online sex advertisements on Dutch websites feature women from South America (Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela), China and Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Poland), according to Noordzij.
It is precisely these women who are vulnerable to exploitation, he says. They only speak their own language, do not know their way around the Netherlands and are dependent on the human trafficker in terms of income and place to sleep. The number of foreign victims of sexual exploitation has increased, according to the national rapporteur on human trafficking, from 217 in 2022 to 333 in 2023. These victims are reported to the Coordination Center against Human Trafficking (CoMensha) by the police, military police and Labor Inspectorate, among others.
The government relies too much on the assertive Dutch prostitute who stands up for herself
The police and the judiciary have seen a “considerable” increase in the number of investigations into the exploitation of women from abroad. In the past two years, twelve investigations were launched into Chinese women who were exploited in terraced houses. The women usually had to give up more than half of their earnings. During police checks, the pimp usually does the talking, says Noordzij. Because the sex workers often do not speak English or Dutch, and so they cannot tell their story.
In addition, “dozens” of investigations are underway into the exploitation of South American women and trans people. At the end of last month, the justice department rounded up a gang. He put Colombian women to work in holiday parks. At least some were exploited, according to the Public Prosecution Service. And in every police region there are a few investigations into possible exploitation of Romanian or other Eastern European women, says Noordzij.
When designing the new legislation, the government focuses too much on the “articulate, Dutch, prostitute, who stands up for herself.” The foreign prostitute is not like that, says Noordzij, she is more vulnerable and more dependent on her pimp.
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