Latest news about crime and security in the Netherlands. Information about the black market is collected from international organizations, intelligence reports, national security agencies and news articles.
Official city records in Amsterdam show that there are between 6,000 to 8,000 prostitutes working in the city.
Anti-human trafficking organizations estimate that up to 10 percent of the women are victims of trafficking and exploitation.
(See prices of prostitutes worldwide.)
Source: Cecelia Rodriguez, “Reforming Prostitution in Amsterdam Includes a Business Plan and Business Hours,” Forbes, March 1, 2013.
An anti-trafficking organization reported that three out of four prostitutes working in the red light district of Amsterdam were from economically distressed communities. Not-for-Sale stated at a conference on women’s rights that 75 percent of the women came from poor communities in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
Source: Belinda Goldsmith, “Younger girls forced into prostitution in economic crisis: conference,” Reuters, December 5, 2012.
The Justice Ministry of Brazil reported that it has found around 500 people who have been victims of human trafficking between 2005 and 2012.
Out of the total number of victims, 337 involved sexual exploitation.
The victims were trafficked out of Brazil and were operating in Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
(See human trafficking prices)
The Justice Ministry stated that over half of the human trafficking networks were managed by women who deceived the victims.
Source: EFE, “Some 500 Brazilians have been victims of people trafficking since 2005,” Fox News Latino, October 16, 2012.
At the end of 2011, there were 223 coffee shops in the city of Amsterdam selling marijuana. About 1 million foreign tourists visit the shops annually.
A new law passed at the end of 2011 made it illegal for tourists to purchase marijuana at the coffee shops beginning in 2013.
Source: Jurjen van de Pol, “Netherlands Stops Tourists Buying Marijuana in Coffee Shops,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, December 15, 2011.
A report by the Association for the Reintegration of Women in Prostitution (APRAMP) stated that 39 percent of Spanish men have paid for the services of a prostitute at least once.
Following Spain, the next four highest usage of prostitution by male citizens of the country were Switzerland (19 percent of men), Austria (15 percent), Netherlands (14 percent), and Sweden (13 percent).
An estimated 700,000 women work as prostitutes across the European Union.
Source: “39% of Spaniards have hired the services of a prostitute,” Spanish Review, October 26, 2011.
There were a total of 650 coffeeshops in the Netherlands that sold small amounts of cannabis in 2010. A majority of the coffeeshops were located in North and South provinces.
58 coffeeshops, or 9 percent of the total, were found to be within 350 meters of a school, a violation of the national laws.
Source: “Nine percent of coffeeshops too close to schools,” Radio Netherlands Worldwide, September 5, 2011.
Up to 40 percent of Amsterdam’s 16 million tourists each year are estimated to be drug tourists and visit the coffee shops where marijuana is sold.
Source: Laura Bly, “Dutch ‘drug tourism’ set to go up in smoke,” USA Today, May 31, 2011.
The legal prostitution industry in the Netherlands generates $800 Million (625 Million Euros) a year.
There are about 8,000 women working as prostitutes, with 3,000 working behind a window.
The tax rate for workers in the prostitution industry in 33 percent.
Source: Anna Holligan, “Amsterdam’s prostitutes targeted by Dutch tax officials,” BBC News, March 20, 2011.
The United States, Japan, United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands purchased 11.7 million cubic meters of timber worth $8.4 Billion that was cut down by illegal logging activities in 2008.
Source: AFP, “Illegal logging of tropical forests in decline: study,” Google News, July 15, 2010.
Cigarette smuggling in the Netherlands lead to the seizure 209 million cigarettes worth 36.3 Million Euros. The number of black market cigarettes seized in the country was up from the 204 million seized in 2008.
In addition to the seizures of tax-free cigarettes, 0.9 percent of all cigarettes smoked in the country in 2009 were counterfeits. Back in 2005, the number of fake tobacco smoked in the Netherlands was 4 percent. Authorities attributed the drop in counterfeits smoked due to the low quality of the counterfeit cigarettes.
Source: “Dutch clampdown on cigarette smuggling,” Radio Netherlands, May 27, 2010.
