Nota van wijziging Wet regulering sekswerk

Reactie

Vraag1

I am an ally of sex workers and I oppose the WRS (read here why bit.ly/3Zx99mr), even with the proposed changes:

Article 8a: Repeat interview

Understanding a person's personal situation is a complicated process. There is no evidence that a 90-minute conversation contributes to resolving human trafficking. Repeating this interview every year is useless. It stigmatises sex workers and does not contribute to its purpose.

Article 16: Data processing

Processing special personal data of sex workers does not comply with our fundamental rights and puts sex workers at risk. Soa Aids’ protest letter (bit.ly/3LadDL5) against the WGTS explains the arguments against this very well.

Article 40: Criminalising clients

Customers are given too much power over sex workers. Customers are encouraged to report unlicensed sex workers so that they themselves do not face punishment. This is dangerous.

Clients who still have doubts after visiting a sex worker, about whether a sex worker is working voluntarily, will still be punishable. So clients will not report human trafficking. And clients with bad intentions will have a blackmail tool to do violence to unlicensed sex workers. Now, sex workers are already blackmailed by clients who threaten to inform the tax authorities, for example. With this change, the position of unlicensed sex workers becomes extremely vulnerable.

Listen to sex workers

The ministry expects around 10,000 sex workers in the Netherlands will apply for a licence. The aim of the law is to find more abuses. But no additional costs are expected for the police. So the police do not get extra money for the extra reports. So it is expected that no more abuses will be found. Then this law is not needed.

For the 17,000 sex workers who will not or cannot apply for a licence, this means that they will work in the Netherlands under the Swedish model. Research shows that this will lead to more violence and further exclusion from society.

I oppose the changes in this memorandum and I oppose the WRS.

EUR 13.7 million has been budgeted for this law over the next two years. I recommend investing this amount in the sex work community in the Netherlands and its alliances. Because only then will you create a safer working environment for everyone in the sex industry.

Bijlage