Taking the Sexy Out of Amsterdam: Why sex workers in the city are seeing red

Amsterdam is (was?) a city of no rules. It’s where tourists throng to shed their inhibitions and indulge in all things naughty. But now the Netherlands capital is planning to tame its wild wild side. It wants to ‘sanitise’ its famous red-light district. Coming up is a ban on cannabis for tourists. That’s not all. The authorities are also mulling moving the centuries-old brothels to an “erotic centre” on the outskirts of the city . But before that, they want lights out early every day. Sex workers are not happy and are making themselves heard, pouring onto the streets in protest. Shut shop early The red-light district is known as De Wallen. It gets its name from the red neon bulbs that light up hundreds of windows where sex workers offer their services. It’s a bustling centre that would be open until the break of dawn. But authorities have changed that and several other practices that have existed for decades. According to new rules, which were implemented on 1 April, the brothels will shut shop at 3 am instead of the usual 6 am and the bars will close at 2 am. No new visitors are allowed into the only city district after 1 am. The change has been enforced to curb the nuisance created by visitors, say local authorities. [caption id=“attachment_12398502” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Sex workers and supporters protest the new change in rules with a 3 am deadline for the red-light district. AFP[/caption] ‘Stay away’ campaign The city is already targeting “wild” young British men, asking them to stay away . Last week, the Dutch city’s council launched an online campaign asking Brits, between the age of 18 and 35, to discourage them from visiting. For British tourists searching the internet for “stag party Amsterdam,” “cheap hotel Amsterdam” or “pub crawl Amsterdam,” a video ad appears, warning them against the excessive use of drugs and alcohol and causing mayhem by indulging in antisocial behaviour. A video shows a drunk man being arrested. The message reads, “Coming to Amsterdam for a messy night + getting trashed = €140 fine + criminal record = fewer prospects.” It concludes, “So coming to Amsterdam for a messy night? Stay away.” “Visitors will remain welcome, but not if they misbehave and cause nuisance. In that case, we as a city will say: rather not, stay away,” Amsterdam deputy mayor Sofyan Mbarki said in a release. The ‘Stay Away’ campaign is expected to expand as the year goes by. It will send a similar message to tourists from the Netherlands and other European Union countries, according to a CNN report. Revellers have to brace for more changes and restrictions. There’s a crackdown on sex and soon on drugs. [caption id=“attachment_12398522” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A new campaign is directed at rowdy male Britsh tourists, asking them to stay away from the red-light area. File photo/Reuters[/caption] A ban on cannabis Come mid-May, it will be illegal to smoke cannabis on the streets of the red-light area. Cannabis consumption will only be allowed inside cannabis coffee shops and not in outdoor areas. While it is a criminal offence to possess, produce or deal drugs, the Netherlands has a “toleration policy” which allows coffee shops to sell cannabis under strict conditions, which involves not causing a nuisance. But after regular complaints by residents, the city council announced the upcoming ban in February. Even the sale of alcohol from shops, liquor stores and cafes in the red light district is illegal from Thursday to Sunday after 4 pm. Under the new rules, vendors have to completely remove alcohol from their shopfronts during that time, or hide them from view, according to a report by the BBC. [caption id=“attachment_12398552” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] From mid-May, tourists are banned from smoking cannabis in the open in Amsterdam’s red-light area. Reuters[/caption] Re-locating the red light district However, the biggest change is still in the works. The red light district will soon get a new address if authorities have their way. A multi-storey “erotic centre” is expected to replace the central red-light area in Amsterdam. Last year, Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema and the city council agreed on plans to move the brothels because of the rise in nuisance, criminal activity, and dangerous crowd levels. But opposition from locals and sex workers who did not want to leave their thriving business in one the most beautiful parts of the inner city forced the mayor to go back to the drawing board to find three other possible locations last November, according to a report by The Guardian. [caption id=“attachment_12398562” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Amsterdam wants to move the red-light area to an ’erotic centre’ on the outskirts of the city. File photo/Reuters[/caption] Halsema wants to create a plus erotic centre inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge. This February, she announced the locations she had zeroed in on, two of which are within a 10-minute walk of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam’s southern Zuidas district. But EMA was not pleased. “Locating the Erotic Centre in close proximity to EMA’s building is likely to bring the same negative impacts to the adjacent area,” it said in a statement in early March, adding that it fears “nuisance, drug-dealing, drunkenness and disorderly behaviour”. The EMA moved its headquarters to Amsterdam’s southern Zuidas district in 2019 after the United Kingdom left the European Union. Looks like sex workers will get a new workplace, something they are not very pleased with. The protests Sex workers have been protesting against the early closure of business and the plan to move the famed district, marching through Amsterdam on Thursday. Felicia Anna (not her real name), a former sex worker and the chairperson of Red Light United, a union for window workers in the red-light district told CNN that the reduced business hours mean lesser income for the workers. They will be unable to meet expenses like window room rent and a taxi to get home safely. Most workers start work at midnight or 1 am after the bars shut. “Now you have maybe two hours to make any money, which is not enough,” she told the publication. Another sex worker and coordinator for the Prostitution Information Centre (PIC), an Amsterdam-based organisation that provides information and education about sex work, told CNN that the reduced work hours will affect the transgender community as most clients who come between 3 am and 6 am are looking for transgender sex workers. She also said that travelling at 3 am was more unsafe than 6 am. In the morning, there are more transport options and more social activity. [caption id=“attachment_12398582” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Sex workers and sympathisers take part in a demonstration in Amsterdam on 30 March. Many say that they don’t want to be moved to an erotic centre. AFP[/caption] “We really don’t agree with the solutions that they are offering, that they’re imposing. They’re not even negotiating with the sex workers’ organisations,” sex worker Sabrina Sanchez told AFP. Many are not pleased with the decision to shift their area of work. “We don’t want to be moved, not to an erotic centre or anywhere else,” said another sex worker wearing a hood and sunglasses, who wished to remain anonymous. “Do something about the drug traffickers, do something about those who behave disrespectfully,” she added, reading out a petition in front of Mayor Femke Halsema. Amsterdammers do not agree with stigmatising the British. Theodoor van Boven, founding director of the Condomerie shop, the world’s first condom shop, said that the ‘Stay Away’ campaign was scandalous and doomed to fail. “Businesses and residents want to deal with antisocial behaviour and dealers, not a ‘stay away’ campaign. The Dutch, Amsterdammers, North Hollanders and other nationalities can misbehave just as well,” he told The Guardian. A barman said that the city was trying to get tourists for years and now it wants them to go away. “Brits aren’t the worst. It’s big groups of men,” he told The Guardian. ‘Excessive tourism’ Amsterdam has a population of 880,000 but receives 18 million tourists a year. “Amsterdam is already taking lots of measures against excessive tourism and nuisance, and we are taking more measures than other large cities in Europe. But we have to do even more (in) the coming years if we want to give tourism a sustainable place in our city,” Deputy Mayor Sofyan Mbarki said. To keep the city liveable, it has to choose “restriction instead of irresponsible growth.” Halsema has been trying to convince sex workers that they are not to blame. ‘You are not the cause, it’s a result of too much tourism, criminality and other problems," she told protesters on Thursday. “But the situation in the city centre is becoming very problematic and we have to find a solution.” With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.