The Amsterdam municipality will clean up its infamous red light district located in the old city center, according to media reports Tuesday.
Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen said that the clean-up act aims to fight human trafficking, money laundering, drug abuse and other organized crimes.
Cohen said the revamp is needed after a move in 2000 to legalise prostitution failed to rein in the criminals running Amsterdam's sex trade.
"The romantic picture of the area is outdated if you see the abuses in the sex industry and that is why the council has to act," he said. "We don't want to get rid of prostitution but we do want to cut crime significantly."
The plan is to replace sex clubs with regular venues, theatres and residential homes as a larger facelift of the old city center is undergoing.
Prostitutes have plied their wares in the narrow alleys of the old center for centuries. While they used to attract sailors and merchants in the city's heyday as the heart of a global trading empire, they are now a huge tourist draw.
The open sex industry, with its cinemas, live shows, sexual aid shops and women in windows, is part of the city's image.
Mariska Majoor, a former prostitute who now runs an information center in the red light district, told the media the city's plan could force hundreds of women out of work or underground.
"Where should the women go?" she asked. "They are only talking about criminals and gangsters. We're talking about a legal profession here ... They completely ignore the hundreds of women who are working of their own free will."
Source: Xinhua/Agencies
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