“The Brussels prostitution issue cannot afford another three years of inaction”

The Brussels N-VA group supports Mayor Close’s call to the federal government to ban street prostitution. But something can also be done at the level of the Brussels-Capital Region. That is why the N-VA is proposing its own prostitution plan as an alternative to Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort’s doomed action plan. “We are clearly putting forward the model used in Antwerp: a concentrated area where window prostitution is tolerated in combination with a general ban on street prostitution,” Brussels MP Mathias Vanden Borre says.

In March, Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort (PS) explained the new 2021-2024 Regional Security Plan. The main measure to tackle the prostitution problem is to work on inter-municipal coordination and harmonisation of the approach to prostitution. However, that is exactly the same approach as the previous plan. “The success of Rudi Vervoort’s action plan once again depends on cooperation between Brussels municipalities. This formula has not made any progress in recent decades, which Rudi Vervoort also has to admit. The municipalities of Schaerbeek, Brussels City and Saint-Josse-ten-Node do not cooperate in the slightest and are muddling along individually, which means that problems persist. That is why the N-VA has come up with an alternative prostitution plan,” Mathias Vanden Borre says.

The N-VA proposes the Antwerp model: a tolerance zone for window prostitution

The problems in the Alhambra neighbourhood and Louizalaan (street prostitution) and the Brabant neighbourhood (window prostitution and illegal prostitution in pubs) are well known. Sex workers and clients urinate in portals, drug dealing is apparently normal, and exploitation, human trafficking and violence are also frequent. In short, sex workers and local residents have to work and live in unsafe and undignified conditions because the government is failing them. This must change, Mathias Vanden Borre says. “We are clearly putting forward the model used in Antwerp: a concentrated area where window prostitution is tolerated in combination with a general ban on street prostitution. The emergency and security services are present in the demarcated area, with checks on the hygiene and human dignity of the working conditions. We also want to appoint a prostitution officer, who would be tasked with making all the services involved work together more effectively. In addition, the Municipalities Law and the joint police regulations must be amended to make GAS (municipal administrative sanction) fines possible. The Council of State also indicates that the Region is uniquely in a position to take legislative action.”

Ban on street prostitution

“We cannot afford more inaction. Our Regional Prostitution Plan provides the Vervoort government with proposals to improve the situation in the areas affected by prostitution (Alhambra, Brabant neighbourhood, etc.) in the short term. For example, we want street prostitution to be banned and punished firmly with GAS fines. The idea is that the affected areas can be revived, but also that sex workers are better supervised. The way symptoms are now tackled is dire and unworthy of a capital city,” Mathias Vanden Borre says.

Some neighbourhoods have become unlivable

“The prostitution problem has been dragging on in this Region for decades. The municipalities involved each have their own approach to the phenomenon, causing uncertain and unsafe situations. As a consequence, certain neighbourhoods have become unlivable. The practice in Antwerp shows that an area of concentration where window prostitution is tolerated, combined with a ban on street prostitution, can work for the local residents and the sex workers alike. I am pleased that Mayor Close is also behind the principles of our prostitution plan,” he concludes.