Utrecht wants to allow sex work from home, pending national legislation

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Sex work can be unsafe. Especially if your working method is not permitted by the government, says 29-year-old sex worker Beau. Many of her colleagues work from home. That’s not allowed. Then imagine that a customer abuses or robs you. You can’t call the police. In fact, if the police come, you run the risk of being evicted if your landlord hears about it. Beau knows stories from several colleagues who have had this happen to them.

She tells it calmly, at a table in Belle’s office. This is an assistance organization for (former) sex workers and is part of the De Tussenvoering foundation. Next to her is Minke Fischer, manager of the foundation. And opposite her sits Utrecht councilor Eelco Eerenberg. He knows Beau’s stories and has spoken with her and her colleagues more often in recent years.

Eerenberg (Public Health, D66) held those conversations because he is working on new rules for sex work. On Monday he sent part of it to the municipal council in Utrecht. The councilor wants to legalize sex work as a profession from home, without imposing a licensing requirement. Utrecht is the first of the four major cities with this intention. A few smaller municipalities, such as Hilversum and Tilburg, preceded the city.

Since the closure of the Zandpad operation in 2013, legal sex work in Utrecht has become more complicated

The municipality does impose a number of conditions. These will be included in a general local ordinance, rules at municipal level regarding public order and safety. For example, one resident per home is allowed to perform sex work. The sex workers must be at least 21 years old and have been registered at an address for at least three months. And all money earned must go to the sex worker himself.

It’s about time, says Beau. By the way, that is her working name, her own name is known to the editors. Like Fischer, she calls it a step in the right direction. She notices a lot of frustration among others towards the municipality of Utrecht, because it has become increasingly difficult to work legally over the past eleven years. Every time the municipality came up with plans, they always failed. People lost their confidence and their patience.

More complicated

Legal sex work has become more complicated in Utrecht since 2013. That year, the municipality closed operations on the Zandpad, a road along the Utrechtse Vecht, due to alleged human trafficking. Sex workers received clients there on houseboats. In 2021, a streetwalking zone on Utrecht Europalaan was closed.

Since then, the municipality has been looking for ways to give sex work a legal interpretation. She explored new locations for window prostitution, for example. And the municipality wanted a new Zandpad, but it was not possible to find an organization that would realize and operate the workspaces.

An expert committee led by former Minister of Justice and D66 politician Winnie Sorgdrager followed. She saw that sex workers in practice made many online appointments. According to her, this recruitment makes large-scale window prostitution no longer appropriate. In practice, sex workers are already working from home more often, she saw. One of her recommendations from 2022 was therefore: allow sex work from home and in small-scale places.

Sex workers like small-scale places, because they can keep an eye on each other

Sex workers like these small-scale places because they can keep an eye on each other, Sorgdrager wrote. At the same time, she expected that small scale attracts less crime and has less impact on the neighborhood. Emergency services could also be available at such a location. And by working from home with permission, Sorgdrager also hoped that abuses would be reported more quickly.

Sorgdrager advised running a trial with small-scale locations and working from home, and then carefully monitoring what this does to the Utrecht industry.

Criticism

The fact that the municipality of Utrecht is now doing this for the first time is a consequence of this, says Alderman Eerenberg. What also plays a role: national legislation is still pending. In 2021, then State Secretary for Justice Ankie Broekers-Knol (VVD) submitted the Regulation of Sex Work bill. It has not yet been brought to a vote. Criticism came from the sector. The law allows sex work from home, provided you apply for a permit with strict conditions.

Not all sex workers will register, Beau and Fischer predict. Because of the stigma and the fear that their registration will end up in the wrong hands. If that happens, they could lose their home or their children. That leaves: don’t register. “And if you don’t register, you are illegal, and you are much less protected,” says Fischer. The councilor also sees a risk of a counterproductive effect of such a registration obligation. If national rules are introduced, this will have consequences for his plans. “But it’s not there yet,” he says.

Municipalities are also divided over the national bill, according to NOS research published on Monday. Some municipalities are not happy with the bill, because working from home would give them less insight into possible abuses. Other municipalities, like Beau and Fischer, are afraid that the registration requirement will cause vulnerable groups to disappear into illegality.

Points of improvement

Beau and Fischer believe that the municipality of Utrecht now makes its own rules and does not opt ​​for a permit system. Although they already see areas for improvement. Fischer mentions the age limit. In practice, she also sees people who are eighteen doing this work. “You run the risk of them going underground.”

Beau is not happy with the condition that you can only work from home with one resident per home. When you’re alone, no one can keep an eye on you, she says. Then people will also be less likely to help you if things go wrong. She would therefore prefer to work in the same place with a few colleagues. The councilor also says he wants small-scale locations for sex work in Utrecht. People with plans can contact him, he says.

But is it safe if the municipality does not even know where sex workers are working? The alternative, Fischer and Beau say, is for sex work to go underground. As is already largely happening now. Then, says Fischer, you are much more vulnerable.

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