More young, sexually exploited girls: 'They often don't even understand that they are victims'

Publication date: 15 May 2021

BREDA - During the interview, policewoman Ilse Boomaars suddenly can't keep her eyes off her mobile phone. The WhatsApp vibrates continuously. "Sorry, but I have to intervene now." An underage girl she knows as a victim of illegal prostitution no longer feels safe.

And gone is the enthusiastic specialist of the Aliens, Identity and Human Trafficking Department (Avim) in the Zeeland-West-Brabant region. There is not a second to lose after such a cry for help. Criminal pimps often listen in with their victims, the detective knows from experience. They have all the power over the vulnerable girls who have to work for them and can use merciless violence.

Ten minutes later Boomaars (38) steps back into the room with relief. ,, Arranged!", she says with a slightly triumphant sigh, "We will immediately get her back from the perpetrator. Our people are already on their way."

We have an investigation underway in our region in which two girls aged 14 and 15 are victims.

Ilse Boomaars

The acute action is characteristic of the intense work in the migration, crime and human trafficking team, where Boomaars is an operational specialist. “We don't often make the news, mainly because of the vulnerability of the victims and their privacy. But last year we processed 780 reports. The majority eventually went to aid. We brought seventeen suspects to justice. We're really tracking down here."

It is precisely this search that the service wants to do more. That is why the regional police is expanding the human trafficking team from 24 to 32 full-time jobs. And that is necessary. According to Boomaars, the sex industry in the Netherlands is changing rapidly, partly under the influence of corona in the past year. The old sex clubs - closed for a year due to the lockdown - are losing ground to escort service and sex workers at home. They benefit from the fact that they can attract customers very simply, cheaply and efficiently with online advertisements.

Ilse Boomaars before the court in Breda where suspects of sexual exploitation of minors and other forms of human trafficking must ultimately answer. Last year, her team began investigations against 17 suspects.

The classic image of the loverboy is hopelessly outdated. The term no longer covers the load

Ilse Boomaars

However, the development does not make the work of the police any easier. Escort and home prostitution are usually practiced behind unfamiliar front doors and in anonymous hotel rooms. Boomaars: ,,Of course there are women who legally earn a little extra at home as independent sex workers. But exploited victims of pimps who are forced to work are also behind the front doors. They are in the same world and that makes it harder for us to keep an eye on everything.”

The growing category of very young victims in particular is a cause of great concern to the criminal investigation department: ,,We are seeing more and more minors. We now have an investigation in our region in which two girls aged 14 and 15 are victims."

Those girls are definitely victims of loverboys?

“Perhaps I should first clear up a persistent misunderstanding: the classic image of the loverboy is hopelessly outdated. The term has long since lost its meaning. Such a perpetrator no longer enters into a love relationship, does not first invest months in a girl to get her to prostitute herself for him. No, it's much harder and more direct: he makes contact on Snapchat, they meet up, perform sexual acts of which he makes a video with which he immediately blackmails her: if you don't work for me, I'll put the images online."

Such a cold pimp sees the vulnerable girl he exploits purely as a living earning model. That's not love. Then why doesn't the victim call her parents or the police at the first opportunity?

“Many young victims use prostitution to flee, to rebelliously run away from situations in which they have become trapped. They do the work semi-voluntary. Often at the same time there is a disturbed sexual morality and they use drugs, such as nitrous oxide. Many young girls do not even understand that they are victims, let alone report them. So we usually have to start that investigation ourselves."

How do you find these victims? They're hiding behind hotel and front doors and don't even think about volunteering? That's looking for a needle in a haystack.

“True, but we keep a close eye on the online sex advertisements, for example. Large advertising companies such as Kinky.nl and Sexjobs.nl work with us. They request a photo from advertisers and identity documents to keep minors away. We can then claim that data. If we notice that something is not right, we take action. Then, for example, we pretend to be a customer, make an appointment and go to such a hotel room or home."

There you free the exploited girl, handcuff the criminal pimp and solve the case quickly?

“If only it were that easy. There are victims who say they are being exploited. But more often the young woman is startled and shouts: No, go away, I'll be fine! Then you have to act very creatively. In a recent study, a girl didn't want to let go of anything. Then a witness at a hotel said he saw the victim being beaten. As a result, we were able to start the case against the suspected friend, on the basis of assault. We could, for example, listen to him. That way you progress step by step."

There are also parents who report every wrong boyfriend of their daughter as loverboy

Ilse Boomaars, Police

The police don't have to do it all alone. In Zeeland-West-Brabant, she receives many hundreds of tips and reports every year from citizens, concerned relatives and institutions about (illegal) prostitution, exploitation, minors and other suspicious situations that indicate abuses and human trafficking. The police are happy with the information, although they spend a lot of time selecting cases. “Not every problem is suitable for criminal law. There are also parents who report every wrong boyfriend of their daughter as a loverboy. Many cases do not belong to the police, but to a care counter at home. That is why we are now working on a care filter to quickly sort out our cases,'' explains Boomaars.

'She shouted: I want this myself'

An example of such outside help set the police on the trail of a 16-year-old girl who had run away from an institution. An attendant tipped off police that he had seen her photo in an escort ad. ,,We pretended to be a customer and made an appointment in a hotel. She didn't understand why she was being held there. "I want this for myself," she cried. An eighteen-year-old woman whom we arrested as a suspect along with her boyfriend twelve years her senior turned out to be her pimp. This is how victims become perpetrators. She wanted to start an escort agency, she explained. The business plan was already on paper and she kept approaching vulnerable acquaintances from the institution to come and work for her."

Ilse Boomaars

“The bond between victim and exploiter is often very strong. We experienced that in the first interrogation with us a girl had secretly opened her mobile phone so that her pimp could listen in. Ultimately, it's about being able to gain trust, and that often takes a lot of effort and time.”

In nine out of ten cases, women are not forced to put a gun to the head. It usually happens very subtly

Ilse Boomaars

There is another misunderstanding that Boomaars wants to clear up. Namely that victims of sexual exploitation are mostly women from South America or Eastern Europe or other regions often associated with illegal prostitution. ,,That is not true. The majority of the victims are Dutch. Of course, sometimes women from Bulgaria, for example, are lured here to pick strawberries and they disappear into forced prostitution. But most of the foreign prostitutes we speak to say they know what they're doing. They are often part of a large network of compatriots, move from building to building, from city to city and feel no coercion. They say. Because you never know for sure. You don't know what's happening in their homeland. In nine out of ten cases, women are not forced to put a gun to the head. It usually happens very subtly. That makes it all the more difficult to prove.”

Legal or punishable

Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands as long as it involves consensual sex between adults. Forced prostitution and the use of minors as sex workers is always punishable. In the latter case, the police do not have to prove coercion.

The police are investigating sexual exploitation (human trafficking). Tips about this are received through, among other things, Meld Misdaad Anoniem. Victims can go to the police themselves or, for example, report to the national Coordination Center against Human Trafficking (comensha.nl).

Boomaars sees another worrying development. Not only does she encounter younger and younger victims. “Their pimps are also increasingly younger than 23: boys with a low level of education and a low income. They are often busy building a criminal career and need money from prostitution to invest in drugs, for example. They don't care at all that underage girls work for them."

That shows a tough, icy and businesslike attitude among the criminal pimps. What about those other perpetrators, the clients of underage prostitutes?

“That may also be a misunderstanding. But most of the customers are ordinary married men, family men. We prosecute them if they visit an underage prostitute. At the beginning of this century, such a study was in the news in Limburg with major consequences. But that case was no exception. We are working on it every day.”

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Countries: Netherlands