Sex work is legal if it involves voluntary sex between adults. Yet forced prostitution, prostitution by minors and prostitution under unsafe working conditions still occur. Also, the prostitution industry is vulnerable to human trafficking.
Human trafficking includes recruiting, transporting or receiving and housing people with the use of coercion. The purpose of the trafficker is the exploitation of a person. There are different forms of human trafficking:
Labor exploitation: when someone works and has to remit (part of) the income and/or work in degrading conditions.
Sexual exploitation: when a person is forced to have sex in exchange for money, clothing or food and has to hand it over to the exploiter.
Criminal exploitation: when a person is forced to beg, steal or perform other criminal activities and has to hand over the loot to the exploiter.
Forced organ removal: this involves forcing a person to donate his or her organs.
The central government has taken several measures to improve (access to) the help and support offered to all victims of human trafficking.
There is the website guide human trafficking. The guide explains the topic of human trafficking, how to recognize victims, what the different rights of victims of trafficking are and what schemes they can claim.
In Overijssel, we work closely with the human trafficking coordinators.
For signals, consultation and/or help around human trafficking, you can also contact the coordinators through the Human Trafficking Signpost website.