VZCZCXRO4994
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTC #0285/01 0861232
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 261232Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1277
INFO RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RHMFIUU/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHAT/AMCONSUL AMSTERDAM 3932
RUEHOS/AMCONSUL LAGOS 0165

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 THE HAGUE 000285 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, EUR/PGI, EUR/WE 
STATE PLEASE PASS HSTC - MGORELICK AND RHALL 
STATE FOR AID 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN ELAB SMIG ASEC KFRD PREF NL
SUBJECT: WALKING THE BEAT IN THE HAGUE'S RED LIGHT DISTRICT TO 
COMBAT TIP 
 
 
THE HAGUE 00000285  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  During a March 5 briefing and tour of the red 
light district in The Hague, Henry Koper, the coordinator of The 
Hague regional police prostitution and child pornography unit, 
provided an overview of Dutch police efforts to combat TIP in the 
regulated prostitution sector.  Koper stated that the city's 
licensing requirements provide a mechanism for the police to enter 
prostitution establishments to talk to prostitutes in private in 
order to identify TIP victims.  In addition to checking documents, 
police use the visits to establish a relationship of trust with the 
prostitutes and to check for any signs of coercion or other illegal 
activities.  Members of the prostitution squad patrol the red light 
district every day.  In addition to conducting routine controls of 
licensed sex businesses, police build cases against suspected 
traffickers by filing reports on observed suspicious behavior or 
information obtained from other sources to make connections among 
traffickers and their victims.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Global Issues Officers toured a portion of the red light 
district in The Hague with Henry Koper, coordinator of The Hague 
regional police prostitution and child pornography unit, for a 
street level view of Dutch police efforts to combat TIP.  The unit, 
which is responsible for conducting licensing controls of brothels, 
window prostitution businesses and escort services, is one of three 
units under the vice squad, and has 12 plainclothes investigators. 
There is a similar specialized prostitution team in each of the 25 
regional police forces in the Netherlands. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Less well-known than the red light district in Amsterdam, 
which is a tourist attraction in its own right with nightclubs, 
restaurants and historical sites in addition to prostitution 
establishments,  the red light district in The Hague is dense and 
clearly delineated. Fluorescent red light floods the two short but 
densely concentrated streets that house prostitution windows.  There 
are no other businesses on these streets.  At one time, the red 
light district in The Hague had over 850 windows, and was the 
largest in the Netherlands. Gentrification led to the closing of at 
least one prostitution street, but over 450 windows remain.  Both 
streets have numerous police surveillance cameras, which did not 
appear to deter the clientele.  Emboffs were the only women on the 
streets not sitting in a window. 
 
¶4. (SBU) During the tour, Koper told Emboffs he knew many of the 
window prostitutes from previous rounds, and it was evident that 
many of them also recognized him.  Emboffs witnessed a prostitute 
call Koper to her window to ask for assistance in recovering her 
belongings, which had been impounded, apparently in a rent dispute. 
The conversation took place in the woman's private room with the 
door closed.  Koper promised to look into her situation; he later 
commented that this type of assistance is instrumental in building 
trust between the police and prostitutes that can lead to 
cooperation and information sharing.  He also pointed out a bar 
located near one of the streets where pimps hang out.  Koper said he 
often spends time there, watching for suspicious activity and 
eavesdropping on conversations, sometimes overhearing information 
that leads him to possible TIP cases. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The Hague has had strict licensing requirements in place 
for prostitution businesses, including escort services, since 2000, 
and requires police to regularly check brothels, prostitution 
windows, and escort services to ensure that those working in these 
establishments have not been trafficked.  (Note: Similar licensing 
requirements for escort services went into effect in Amsterdam on 1 
February 2008. End note.) Koper said that it is these administrative 
"control" requirements that allow police to enter prostitution 
establishments and talk to prostitutes in private in an effort to 
identify TIP victims.  Allowing the police access to conduct such 
license controls is a condition for obtaining a license.  In 
addition to checking documents, police routinely ask prostitutes in 
private whether they or co-workers are being coerced and inform them 
of the resources available to TIP victims in the Netherlands, 
including temporary legal residence permits (B-9 visas), and access 
to shelters and social services.  They are also alert to any signs 
of trafficking or other abuse during the inspection visits.  Such 
signs may include bruises or other evidence of physical injury, 
extreme nervousness, or a claim that a woman has left her identity 
documents with a boyfriend.  Additionally, Koper noted that women 
working longer than normal or double shifts (often an indication 
that she is expected to turn over a high daily income to a pimp or 
 
THE HAGUE 00000285  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
trafficker), or several women arriving in a car escorted by one man, 
who follows them at a distance to a window, are signs of possible 
trafficking for the vice squad to further investigate. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The vice squad conducts escort service checks by arranging 
"dates" with the escorts using phone numbers advertised in the press 
or on the Internet.  When the escorts arrive at the designated 
location, the police identify themselves as police, and conduct 
interviews and document checks. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Koper voiced the commonly held frustration among law 
enforcement officials that TIP victims are often reluctant to come 
forward, as many are frightened and generally distrustful of the 
police.  He said that his squad's regular presence in the red light 
district allows them to build relationships with trafficked women 
and encourage them to speak out over time.  Members of the unit 
visit each establishment daily.  Koper gave examples of women who 
had known him for one or two years before admitting to having been 
trafficked and asking for help; he expressed frustration over cases 
in which he is convinced that a woman is being coerced but she 
remains unwilling to confide in the authorities. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Given the difficulties in getting TIP victims to come 
forward, Koper said the vice unit also relies on old-fashioned 
police work to identify victims and their traffickers.  Prostitutes 
who suspect that a colleague is being coerced often reveal bits of 
information.  There are numerous cameras installed along 
prostitution window streets and police review the tapes regularly. 
Daily patrols of the prostitution areas and frequent visits to 
businesses that have a high likelihood of being fronts for 
unlicensed prostitution, such as massage parlors, allow police to 
identify suspicious behavior.  Asked whether the licensing controls 
don't simply result in traffickers moving to unlicensed, or 
underground, prostitution businesses, Koper maintained that even 
underground businesses had to advertise, which sooner or later 
brings them to the attention of the police.  (Note.  The Hague has 
prohibited streetwalking since 2005.  End Note.)  Koper, who has 
been assigned to the prostitution squad since 1999, said his 
experience has been that the license regulations were a valuable 
tool for combating TIP because they gave the police access to 
information they otherwise would not have. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Information about suspicious or illegal behavior observed 
during license controls and foot patrols is recorded in electronic 
files that are then used to build cases that merit further 
investigation.  As an example, Koper said that the police might 
record the license tag of a car they observed picking up or dropping 
off prostitutes being "escorted" to work, or the name of a purported 
boyfriend called to bring identity documents for a prostitute during 
a routine control.  He said that such details, in combination with 
other reports, allow the police to identify patterns of suspicious 
behavior.  Additionally, the prostitution and child pornography unit 
has two intelligence analysts who regularly mine police report data 
to identify trends or relationships between subjects or 
establishments that can indicate a TIP problem.  The reports are 
also regularly sent to the National Crime Squad's Expertise Center 
on People Trafficking and Smuggling (EMM), which looks for such 
connections at the national level.  This is crucial, as prostitutes 
move locations frequently within the Netherlands. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Koper said that the owners of brothels and prostitution 
windows are rarely, if ever, traffickers.  Indeed, he said that in 
an unexpected development following the lifting of the ban on 
brothels in 2000, brothel and prostitution window owners often call 
the police to ask for assistance in verifying that a woman they are 
considering renting space to is a legal resident, and not underage 
or trafficked.  He attributed this to the fact that infractions 
result in swift temporary closures.  The city can and does order the 
closure of commercial sex establishments for violations of licensing 
requirements; this is an administrative procedure which is much 
quicker than a criminal case.  Closures of thirty days in the event 
of a first infraction, or sixty in the event of a second, lead to 
significant financial losses for brothel or prostitution window 
owners, giving them a strong incentive to comply. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Koper noted that an unfortunate side-effect of EU 
enlargement was that police lost a valuable anti-trafficking tool 
once women from new EU member states no longer required work 
permits.  Previously, police could arrest and detain Eastern 
 
THE HAGUE 00000285  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
European prostitutes for possession of false identity documents. 
The objective was not to prosecute the women for document fraud, but 
to interview them with interpreters in a safe place over the course 
of the three days they could be held without charges.  This made it 
easier to identify TIP victims.  Now, communication with Eastern 
European prostitutes is problematic, as many do not speak Dutch or 
English, and policemen are not able to conduct controls with a team 
of interpreters. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The largest group of TIP victims in the Netherlands is 
comprised of internally trafficked young Dutch women.  Koper 
described how pimps and "lover boys" prey on vulnerable 16-17 year 
olds and coerce them into the sex trade as soon as they turn 18, the 
legal age for prostitution.  He said that according to data he 
obtained from the Dutch Coordination Center Against People 
Trafficking (Comensha, formerly STV) 53 percent of TIP victims in 
the 18-23 year old group are 18 year olds, most of whom were lured 
into prostitution by "lover boys."  Koper said that he had 
spearheaded an initiative to convince prostitution window and 
brothel owners in The Hague to voluntarily restrict the rental of 
space to women who are 21 or older; approximately 80 percent of them 
had agreed to do so.  (Note: The Ministry of Justice is 
investigating the possibility of raising the age for working in 
prostitution to 21.  According to Ministry contacts, while there 
appears to be a parliamentary majority in support of this, it may be 
difficult to legislate since under international treaties adulthood 
is reached at age 18.  End note.) 
 
¶13. (SBU) The second largest group of TIP victims is currently 
African women, primarily from Nigeria.  Koper said that in his 
experience many Nigerian victims who come forward as TIP victims 
often do not provide enough detail to assist the investigation; 
consequently, very few of the cases have so far been referred for 
prosecution.  He speculated that some of the alleged victims in fact 
were prostitutes who had been smuggled into the Netherlands 
voluntarily by organized crime networks savvy about residency permit 
benefits for TIP victims.  He lamented what he saw as a growing 
trend for Nigerian prostitutes to "take advantage of the system" by 
filing complaints that they had been trafficked, but failing to 
provide sufficient information to build an effective case against 
the traffickers.  He said that many had been able to qualify for 
permanent residence because investigation and prosecution of their 
cases had not been completed within three years; many had 
subsequently moved to Italy to work.  Koper noted that despite 
concerns about possible abuse of the system, the police endeavor to 
investigate all allegations of trafficking.  He added that several 
victims of the Nigerian people-trafficking ring currently facing 
prosecution for smuggling under-age asylum seekers into the 
Netherlands and forcing them to work in prostitution had been found 
in The Hague. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Comment: Our guided tour of The Hague's red light district 
confirmed what we have heard from other local and national law 
enforcement officials in the Netherlands: the routine police 
controls mandated by municipal licensing regulations allow police 
access to every commercial sex establishment in the city, but 
checking documents is just one part of the effort to identify 
potential TIP victims and their traffickers.  The vice squad's daily 
presence in th red light district and regular interviews with 
rostitutes enables them to spot the often subtle sgns of 
trafficking, and more importantly to gainthe trust needed for 
trafficking victims to come forward. 
 
GALLAGHER