Lover Boys
When Holland legalised prostitution it was supposed to clean up the sex trade. But 13 years on this shocking report exposes the men grooming women as sex slaves, in a damning indictment of the system.
Behind the shiny windows filled with young scantily-clad women, Amsterdam's open sex trade disguises a sinister world. It's one run by the so-called 'Lover Boys', pimps who lure underage schoolgirls from across Europe into relationships only to groom, beat and brutalise them into selling themselves for sex. A British man, Tom, is in Amsterdam on a mission to recover his daughter Sonia, who was groomed by sex traffickers. "These people are the underworld: prostitution, drugs, trafficking. All the areas that you would not expect your daughter to be anywhere near." A private detective found her in The Hague, selling sex against her will. She had managed to escape the clutches of the Lover Boys and escaped to a safe house, but confused and threatened, she returned. Cindy, another resident at the safe house, explains the fear that keeps them in the men's clutches: "When you are raped in your room every 20 minutes, with a broken arm, then you know for sure what they can do". Tom wants to pull Sonia out of this world, but with her too scared to testify against the men there's nothing he can do. Jacques, his private detective, warns that any actions he takes himself are too risky. "I sure hope for Tom he doesn't end with a bullet in his head in England."
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