Amsterdam buys brothels in red light clean up*

AFP - Friday, September 21

AMSTERDAM (AFP) - - The city of Amsterdam announced Thursday that it
will invest up to 15 million euros (21 million dollars) to help clean up
its famous red light district by buying brothels there.

The city will help a real estate developer buy 51 storefront windows
where prostitutes ply their trade to convert them into apartments or
commercial premises.

Although prostitution has been legal in the Netherlands since 2000, the
city is trying to bring about a voluntary clean-up of Amsterdam's famous
red light district.

City mayor Job Cohen told a news conference that the deal announced
Thursday represented "a big step".

"Since the legalisation in 2000, things have changed," Cohen said.

"The law was created for voluntary prostitution but these days we see
trafficking of women, exploitation and all kinds of criminal activity,"
he said.

The Wallen, as the prostitution district is known in Dutch, is one of
the oldest and most picturesque areas of Amsterdam and draws hoards of
tourists, although they mainly flock there to gawk at the women.

"It is not about chasing prostitution of the Wallen, but it's about
fighting crime," Cohen stressed.

City council member responsible for finance Lodewijk Asscher said
closing down the prostitute windows should not have a negative impact on
tourism.

"We are talking about what we call vertical drinkers, people who walk
around the district drink in hand and never even sit down in the area's
bars and restaurants," he said of the tourists attracted to the area.

"What's more important? A tourist attraction or women who are victims.
It's modern slavery," Asscher added.

However, the Dutch sex workers' union De Rode Draad criticised the plans.

"We believe that less windows means more exploitation of women,"
spokeswoman Metje Blaak told AFP.

"If the windows close down, women who are being exploited will be hidden
somewhere else where union representatives and health workers can't make
contact with them," she explained.

"The city should go after pimps, not real estate."

Real estate developer NV Stadsgoed agreed to pay 25 million euros to buy
the storefront windows from red light district kingpin Charles Geerts.

Prostitutes hire the windows for around 100 euros for part of the day
and one window usually has several prostitutes per day, making it a very
lucrative business to hire the windows out.

The city of Amsterdam has earmarked up to 15 million euros to compensate
the loss of value when the prostitutes are no longer there.

Under the deal with the municipality, Geerts is not allowed to invest
the money he earns in the red light district again. Even if he invests
outside the Wallen, he is not allowed to invest in prostitution,
gambling or coffee shops -- cannabis cafes allowed to sell marijuana.

The 51 prostitutes' windows to be closed represent around one third of
such windows in the red light district.

The city of Amsterdam last autumn announced the plans to clean up the
area, which has been the city's prostitution zone for more than one
hundred years.