Mayor has ‘sex apartment’ in Hoboken sealed: “There were always other girls staying there” (Hoboken)

Mayor Bart De Wever (N-VA) has had an apartment in Frieslandstraat in Hoboken sealed due to serious disruption of public order. The apartment served as a ‘workplace’ for foreign prostitutes. The finishing rooms will remain closed and sealed for at least a month.

The police received several reports of nuisance due to prostitution in an apartment on the third floor of a building in Frieslandstraat. “A reporter stated 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. “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 rooms were furnished as a ‘finishing room’, where sex workers received their clients. “The owner was also present in the apartment and apparently slept in the sofa. His statement was 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.

Feeling of insecurity

The prostitution activities also caused a nuisance in the neighborhood and created a feeling of insecurity for fellow residents. “Every day, customers asked residents how to get to the apartment on the third floor or they randomly rang the doorbell. The syndic also indicated that there had been nuisance in the building on several occasions and that there was a feeling of insecurity among several residents because vehicles with sex workers regularly stopped in front of the building,” the spokesperson said.

“Every day, customers asked residents how they could get to the apartment on the third floor or they randomly rang the doorbell”

Johan Vermant

Spokesperson mayor

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.