(Translated by S. Dallali)

Often prostitutes are merchandise

AMSTERDAM — Of the about 17,500 prostitutes in the Netherlands an estimated 3500 are victims of trafficking. About 1350 traffickers are active in the Netherlands and a trafficker makes an average of three victims. This follows from the report Trafficking in Humans in the Netherlands 1997-2000 by Esther van Dijk of the Department of National Investigations Information.

The Research was executed in commission of the Board of Superintendents. The report is based on 81 investigations of trafficking in humans.

Trafficking in human beings is bringing people into prostitution either by force or deceit. A number of victims has been trafficked in the Netherlands, where they most often work as prostitutes legally, but forced. Others are picked up abroad (mostly illegally) to be put to work in prostitution. They are almost always women: the researched period saw just one boy victim.

Almost half of the traffickers have the Dutch nationality, but a number of them was born elsewhere. Many suspects come from former Yugoslavia or, but less so, from Nigeria or Turkey. Half of the suspects without the Dutch nationality have a residence permit. One out of three stays in the Netherlands illegally and one out of six is a refugee. Traffickers who are committing their crimes in the Netherlands, like 'loverboys', often are from Morocco, the Dutch Caribbean and Surinam.

Trafficking in women is not exclusively done by men. One quart of the suspects is female; some have been victims themselves. Women play prominent roles especially in Nigerian criminal networks.

Particularly loverboys operate individually. Groups get their victims abroad. Almost half of the traffickers operate within criminal networks. Prostitutes often have to work in one, and than the next country. Most of them are foreigners.