Underage prostitutes locked up while their pimps walk

The Netherlands locks up underage girls who have been manipulated into prostitution. They are held "for their own protection". Their pimpt often go free.

A white sheet lay spread out on the floor. The girl who lives in this room prefers sleeping under her desk instead of on her bed, her supervisor explained. She was neglected as a child and feels safest tucked away in a corner.

The floor-sleeper is one of 60 girls housed at the Alexandra protective care facility for minors in the Dutch city of Almelo. Of all the girls there, 90 percent were exploited by pimps. Sometimes the girls themselves deny they are victims, but if the authorities harbour strong enough suspicions they are locked up at Alexandra nonetheless.

In Alexandra, the girls are protected. Not only from their former pimps and their pimps’ friends, but also from themselves. The – often young – pimps to whom these girls fell victim have a fixed routine. They shower their targets with compliments, attention and gifts, looking to win them over before they force them into prostitution. In the beginning, the girls are made to sleep with their ‘lover boy’s’ friends. If all goes according to the pimp’s plan, they end up in commercial prostitution, as an escort, in one of the Netherlands’ red light districts, or on street, earning him good money.

Manipulated into prostitution

A high fence topped with barbed wire serves as a reminder of the complete isolation imposed on the girls here. Security cameras keep a constant eye on the building and its parking lot. The building, a one-time youth penitentiary, is replete with locks and secure doors. Emailing and instant messaging are forbidden and even paper mail is subject to inspection. Visitors have to leave their mobile phones and bags at the entrance.

The security measures are there because the residents’ former pimps often try to get back in touch with them. Occasionally, if they are able to find out when a girl will go on leave, they will take the same train as the girl and pop up next to her. They are not afraid to frequent the centre itself either. They show up on ‘family day’ when the girls’ relatives are being shown around the building or drive over and use their headlights to communicate with girls from the parking lot. Some send gifts.

Girls will sometimes be asked to pass presents on to others, making them complicit in a ploy to manipulate another one of the residents back into prostitution. This is a painful topic for the girls’ caretakers. “You can see them as accomplices, but they are really acting out of fear,” said Gerda Velthuizen, who is the head of treatment at Alexandra.

The girls at Alexandra need to be protected from themselves as well, Velthuizen said. She showed the isolation booth to prove her point: a barren white room containing nothing but a mattress, a toilet and a camera. Girls are kept there for up to 24 hours if they are suicidal, threaten to hurt themselves, or are particularly aggressive. Some girls ask to be put into isolation. Sometimes because they are afraid they might do something to themselves, sometimes just because they are looking for a safe place to sleep.

The girls at Alexandra did not become so fearful because they were exploited by their pimps. Their pimps sought them out because they were troubled to begin with.

Lonely and hurt

Police detective Henk van Rijssel, in charge of the Rotterdam police force’s specialised team that targets pimps who seek out young victims, is incensed by their tendency to seek out the vulnerable. “They have knack for spotting them,” he said. Their victims are often mentally underdeveloped, have suffered a history of abuse, are lonely, or all of the above. The girls are often under 16. “The reasons these girls may have for seeing these boys are irrelevant to me really,” Van Rijssel said. “The boys take advantage of them and make big money in the process.”

Either the number of victims is on the rise, or the phenomenon is just being better reported. In 1999, a Dutch government agency received 225 reports of human trafficking. By 2009 that number had risen to 909. The majority of the trafficking cases involve women forced into prostitution.

A new group with whom the police and caretakers have to deal are Islamic victims. Once a Muslim girl has lost her virginity, she becomes susceptible to blackmail. “These girls are often more afraid of their father than their pimps,” Velthuizen said. “And their pimps know it.”

Beaten with beer bottles

Pimps use some grisly techniques to intimidate their victims. In 2007 the court established that a particular girl had been forced to work as a prostitute for five years. The court found that the pimp forbade his victim to leave the house, and “beat her on the head or body with beer bottles and screwdrivers”. The pimp drove her to “work”, where he checked up on her several times a day and made her give up her earnings. The judge sentenced the pimp, a repeat offender, to four years in jail. He had done time for a “comparable crime” in the past, the verdict read, and had started working his next victim shortly after his release. According to detective Van Rijssel, girls are often blackmailed and brainwashed. "You might compare it to a cult,” he said.

Pimps rarely face the maximum sentence of eight years. The number of acquittals runs relatively high compared to other types of sexual exploitation. In rape cases, between 13 and 23 percent of all suspects walk. Suspected pimps are acquitted 31 percent of the time.

As a consequence, it is often the girls, not their pimps, who are locked up, albeit for their own protection.

Caretakers encourage the girls to file formal complaints with the police against their former pimps, but Velthuizen said the solution to their problems lay elsewhere. They should be helped to help themselves. “Otherwise, another pimp will be right there waiting for them when they leave,” Velthuizen said.

Velthuizen held realistic expectations over the outcome of her work, she said. Studies have found most of these girls will suffer from a range of problems for the rest of their lives, including teen pregnancy, unemployment and violent relationships. “For some girls, their pimp is just a passing phase in a miserable life,” Van Rijssel lamented.