The mayor has sealed off an apartment in Frieslandstraat in Hoboken where foreign sex workers work on their clients. — © Google Street View
The mayor has had an apartment in Frieslandstraat in Hoboken sealed due to serious disruption of public order. The apartment served as rooms where foreign prostitutes worked on their clients. The property may not be rented out for at least a month.
The police received several reports of nuisance caused by prostitution in an apartment on the third floor of a building in Frieslandstraat. “A reporter stated, among other things, that the resident of the apartment has sex workers living with him who receive customers day and night,” says Johan Vermant, spokesperson for Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever (N-VA). “They only stay in the apartment for a short time, after which other girls keep coming to take their place.”
During subsequent checks, the security forces repeatedly found sex workers of foreign origin who did not speak Dutch or English. Several bedrooms were furnished as a finishing room, a room where sex workers receive clients. “The owner was also present in the apartment and was apparently sleeping in the sofa. He stated that he often gives sex parties.”
According to the sex workers, they paid respectively 200 to 250 euros per week or 50 euros per day for a room in the apartment. “However, they could not provide a rental agreement. One of the sex workers stated that she always stayed in her room. The situation in which the sex workers found themselves was as such worrying,” says Vermant.
Residents’ feeling of insecurity
The prostitution activities also cause nuisance to the neighborhood and create a feeling of insecurity for fellow residents. “Every day, customers ask residents how to get to the apartment on the third floor or they randomly ring the doorbell. The syndic also indicated that there has been nuisance in the building on several occasions and that there is a feeling of insecurity among several residents because vehicles with sex workers regularly stop in front of the building,” the spokesperson said.
The mayor decided to close and seal the entrance doors of the rooms that are furnished as finishing rooms in the apartment for a period of one month.
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