An apartment in the North of Antwerp was ordered to be sealed off by the local Mayor due to suspected human trafficking.
The building, located on Lange Dijkstraat, is thought to have been a base for exploited sex workers, who were being forced to pay high rental costs and were monitored using surveillance cameras. Multiple cases of exploitative prostitution (prostitution is decriminalised in Belgium) in this apartment have been reported by the police.
The rooms were publicly advertised on a sex website and arranged home visits. The women living there had to surrender their mobile phones to a so-called "leader", who also managed their appointments and had control over who came through the house.
"This suggests an organisation involved in exploitation and human trafficking is behind all this," according to city officials.
The women did not have a rental contract nor could they speak Dutch or English, rendering them highly vulnerable. The ambiguity concerning their rental payments and their dependency on their supervisor puts them in a very precarious position.
"The risk of recurrence must be eradicated or at least minimised," says the city council. "Neither the landlord nor the tenant takes any initiative to provide the vulnerable sex workers with adequate protective measures." Therefore, the apartment has been sealed off for a month, and a conformity certificate will be required to prove that the building is safe and habitable.
