So after the big news that Amsterdam wants to offer sex workers 19 windows to start their own brothels, many people were happy about that. I am skeptical about it. After all, after the brothel ban was lifted in 2000 Amsterdam had about 510 prostitution windows, right now there are only 395 left of those, as a result of Project 1012.
The project 1012 that once had been sold to the audience to 'fight trafficking', by taking away safe and legal workplaces, had as a goal to close down 208 windows in total at the end of 2017. So far they've closed down 115 of them, which means we still have 93 windows to go. People that think Project 1012 is behind us just because the mayor has decided to re-open 19 brothels for sex workers themselves, are sadly mistaken. Project 1012 is still going, in fact, all the decisions have been made already, so there's almost no turning back anymore.

So even if we get 19 windows back, raising the total from 395 windows now, to 414 windows, they're still going to close down 93 more windows. This would bring the total down to 321 windows, less then there are now, and way less than the 510 that Amsterdam once used to have.
The mayor thinks sex workers won't notice this, if he'll give us 19 windows to shut us up, but he's forgetting one thing: we're good with calculation. After all, we all count our money each day, it's our job, so we have done the calculations for this, and we're still ending up in minus about this. So 19 windows is nice, but it isn't giving us back the 115 windows we've lost thus far, or the 93 windows that are still going to close down.

Another interesting thing that I've came across, was the claim that currently there would be 7000 prostitutes working in Amsterdam, of which 3500 behind the window. What the hell?!
I don't know where these people learned to calculate, but 395 windows aren't going to hold 3500 window prostitutes. This makes no sense at all. Looking at the night time, almost every window is full, meaning there are about 395 girls working in the night. In the day only about 25% of the windows are occupied, since you hardly make any money in the day time, so that's about 100 girls. So let's say that there are about 400 in the night, and 100 in the day, that's 500 girls in total working on a single day. That would mean that 3000 window prostitutes don't work?!
I'm no scientist, but even I know that this is very unlikely. But even if it would be true, giving back 19 windows ain't gonna hold enough place for 3000 prostitutes!

According to the city 19 windows will give place to 50 prostitutes. A weird thing, since there are only 19 windows, which you can only fill twice a day with girls. So 19 girls working in the day, and 19 girls in the night. That's in total 38 girls, and not 50. And that's even assuming that there are 19 girls that want to work in the day, which I doubt, since only 25% of the windows during the day are occupied. So I strongly doubt that they'll ever get to 50 girls.

But okay, let's say that there are about 50 girls that could work there. That would mean that in each window there can be 2,63 girls (19 windows divided by 50 girls). Using this method, this would mean that currently there are currently around 1039 girls working in Amsterdam (395 windows times 2,63 girls). When the new windows open there will be place for 50 more girls, bringing the total up to 1089 girls. Based on the 3500 window prostitutes that got mentioned, this still means almost 2500 girls don't have a place to work.
But wait! It get's better, because of course they're still going to close down 93 more windows (245 girls less), meaning we'll end up with 321 windows for 845 girls. This means that not 50 girls get a new place to work, but 195 more girls loose a place to work between now and 2017. Sure, 50 girls less loose a place to work, that's nice and all, but still 195 girls are going to loose their place to work, on top of the already 303 girls (115 windows have been closed down), that already lost their place to work. That while in 2000 there was still room for 1342 girls (based on 510 windows)!

In short, we've gone from 1342 girls, to only 845 girls left in 2017. Meaning 497 women lost their workplace between 2000 and 2017. That while there are 3500 window prostitutes according to the media in Amsterdam. So what has that improved?
You can give us 19 new windows mr. Van der Laan, but taking away the workplaces of almost 500 girls isn't going to be fixed with giving 50 girls a new place to work. And I haven't even talked about those 3500 that got mentioned in the media, of which apparently you only want 845 girls to have a place to work. Do you really want to kick out 2655 women in the streets?

Dutch version