Discrimination in the Netherlands

[moe.ron]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Foreign prostitutes in the Netherlands are to be excluded from new rules that allow foreigners who are specialists in their fields to work in the country without a permit, the government says.

The decision on Friday angered members of the world's oldest profession, which is legal in the Netherlands, who argued they too should be considered experts since "what we do isn't taught on any school curriculum".

The country is home to 30,000 prostitutes, many of them foreigners, who have their own trade union and pay income tax.

From October 1, the Netherlands will allow foreign specialists to work without a permit as long as they earn more than 45,000 euros a year if they are over 30 years old, or 32,600 euros if they are younger than 30.

"Because prostitutes could also earn salaries in these income levels, they could in practice be like specialists. The lower house of parliament finds this undesirable because prostitution is a legal but not a normal line of business," the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment said in a statement.

But Mariska Majoor, founder of the Amsterdam Prostitute Information Centre, said the decision was discriminatory.

"We pay taxes, we are legal. The same rules should apply, not only when it suits the government."

She agreed that the job was unlike others but urged the government to treat prostitutes fairly.

"Of course it's not normal. What we do isn't taught on any school curriculum. But if the government applies rules that benefit it (like taxes), then it should apply the ones that benefit us," she said.

The Netherlands has some of the world's most liberal rules on prostitution, defined as a legal profession since 1988. There are 2,000 brothels operating openly in the country's infamous "Red Light" districts.