During a lively and busy meeting November 10th in the Balie in Amsterdam, Mama Cash brought together 150 sex workers, activists and interest groups from the Netherlands and abroad. Topics of discussion included the consequences of new legislation that is before the Dutch Parliament now.
The new bill proposes mandatory registration for sex workers and criminalization of clients who use services by unregistered sex workers. The bill is modelled after Swedish legislation that criminalizes all clients. But according to Swedish activist Pye Jakobssen sex work flourishes like never before in Sweden, and has simply gone underground. “Ten years after the introduction of this law, there are no numbers on its effectiveness. And nobody ever asked our opinion about it. They speak about us and for us but never to us.”
Mama Cash