Thursday 11 July 2013

Fallen Women



Anna Utrecht 2013.

It is 11.30 am on a drizzly Friday morning and Utrecht’s Zandpad is busy.
The steady stream of cars cruise this picturesque narrow stretch of river.
There are 145 rooms on these boats, which form a neat line on the waters edge.
As of the 25 July 2013 these, love boats will be closed by the council of Utrecht.
The council claims that the boats are posing a threat to public order and for the protection of the girls working on them, whom they believe are the victims of human trafficking.
For some of the girls this is probably true, but Anna had a different story.

Anna works here because the security is good. Surveillance cameras perch strategically on the lampposts that line the path. There are two supervisors constantly present on the streets. The office is manned 24 hours where the alarm system is held. Every room has an alarm next to the bed and when pushed not only notifies the office that there is trouble but immediately records the situation.

Anna was not coerced, abducted or enslaved into prostitution although it wasn’t her first choice of work (she wanted to be a policewoman) it happened to be the best alternative available.
Anna tells me she is her own boss and determines when she goes to work or not, how much she works, which customers she takes and what happens once they are inside.
With a regular client base (Anna’s mobile phone rings three times during our 15 minute conversation) she feels that she has control over her life. Sure she has her good days and her bad days but she believes that she provides a service that her clients are happy to pay for.
Anna doesn’t want to think about how many guys she sleeps with in day she just wants to think about the freedom that the money will bring her. She dares to hope that one day she can go back to studying and live an integrated life in The Netherlands.

Due to the closure of these love boats Anna is now forced to find another location for her work. Going back on the street or into a brothel is not an option for her anymore, she has gotten used to the security and doesn’t want to give that up.




Natalia Amsterdam 2012.

Like an X-rated Alice in Wonderland, incandescent in the
glow of pink and ultra violet lights. Her body provocatively
poses behind the glass taunting and teasing the packs of
young boys prowling the red light district of Amsterdam,
high on testosterone and looking for relief.

50 euros for 15 minutes with Natalia in a small badly lit
room smelling of massage oil and disinfectant. On the
bed a strategically placed piece of plastic marks the spot
where countless others have been.
Natalia has worked in this room for 3 years. She is from a
provincial town in Romania and got into prostitution,
like so many other women, by a man who promised her a
better life in the west.
Instead he abused her, forced her into prostitution, stole
her money, her passport her freedom and then disappeared.