Prostitution, human trafficking
and sexual exploitation
Prostitution
 Prostitution is sexual activity in exchange for
payment
 Street prostitution
 Escort services
 Sex tourism

“Trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from
outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with
the primary purpose of effecting a commercial sexual
relationship by the tourist with residents at the destination”
Legal approaches
 Abolition
 Regulation
 Legalisation
 Decriminalisation
 Feminism
Prostitution in the Netherlands
 Prostitution is defined as a legal profession
 Brothels are legal businesses
 Approximately 25 000 prostitutes
 70 % of prostitutes are foreigners
 One of the biggest destinations for victims of human
trafficking
 http://www.mensenhandel.nl/campagne/m_flash.h
tml
Prostitution in Sweden
 Regarded as violence against women
 Illegal to buy sex since 1999 – the customer is seen
as exploiting the prostitute
 Reasons for the law



Reduce prostitution
A political message
To decrease human trafficking
Experiences in Sweden
 Street prostitution decreased by 40 % from 1999 to
2003
 Same period 200 buyers got a fine

Small percentage of the total number of clients
 Number of victims of human trafficking was
increased from 200-500 to 400-600 in 2003
 No official evaluation made
Negative consequences of prostitution
 Violence against women
 STDs
 Exploitation of women
 Encourages human trafficking
Human trafficking
 The trafficking of human beings is the recruitment,




transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for
the purpose of exploitation.
Estimated 600-800 000 men, women and children
are trafficked across boarders each year
80 % of them are women and girls
Majority trafficked into commercial sexual
exploitation
Trafficking is a lucrative industry
The victims
 Usually the most poor and vulnerable people in a
region
 Promised a good job in another country – better life
 The woman is forced into prostitution
 Estimated that 2/3 of the victims come from Eastern
Europe

¾ have never worked as prostitutes before
 Other countries are Phillipines, Thailand, Brazil ...
Causes of human trafficking
 Unemployment
 Poverty
 Organised crime
 Profitability
 Insufficient penalties for traffickers
 UN: ”Governments and human rights organizations alike
have simply judged the woman guilty of prostitution and
minimized the trafficker's role."
 Demand for prostitutes
How to reduce human trafficking?
 Government actions
 Making human trafficking illegal
 Raise awareness
Potential victims
 Police, social welfare workers
 Clients of prostitution

Possible questions for debate
 Should prostitution be legal or illegal?
 Should buying sex be legal or illegal?
 What other measures can be used to limit
prostitution?
 How to solve the negative consequences of
prostitution?
 How to avoid and stop human trafficking?