Harrowing reports of forced prostitution and human trafficking have caused a public outcry in recent months and even prompted calls from councilors for the year-old red-light district to be shut down, to the fury of many sex workers. Prostitution has been fully legal in the Netherlands since , and sex workers are self-employed and subject to tax. However one rights group estimates that around 3, women are trafficked to the Netherlands each year from eastern Europe and Asia to work in secret brothels or illegal escort agencies, where they are often held captive and abused.
Every night visitors throng the streets, agog at the scantily clad women sitting behind huge red-lit windows, but only a fraction venture inside. Candy, a year-old dancer from France, sat in her usual position behind the counter of the Banana Bar, joking with visitors and posing for photographs.
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