CARE, a leading Christian social policy charity, has this week welcomed the decision taken by Amsterdam's City Council to revoke or refuse licences for 33 sex clubs operating in the city.

|PIC1|Prostitution was legalised in the Netherlands in 2000, as it was argued that this would remove the connections between organised crime and prostitution. However, the closures come following police investigations which found that these brothels were involved in illegal activities including human trafficking for sexual exploitation, CARE has told Christian Today.

CARE believes "legalised prostitution does nothing to protect the women involved, but rather gives a sheen of respectability to this abusive trade."

In the Netherlands, there are an estimated 25,000 people being prostituted - an estimated 15,000 of these are children. These numbers have increased year-on-year since prostitution was legalised.

The announcement came on the same day as CARE for Europe representative Hannah Macsween spoke at a conference in Finland highlighting the link between the acceptability of purchasing sex and increased demand for prostitutes.

Macsween commented, "Given that the number of men purchasing sex in the UK has doubled in recent years, it is highly unlikely that the number of women willing to offer their services has kept up with this increased demand. Consequently, we are seeing more and more women being coerced, forced and trafficked into prostitution."

She concluded saying, "Tackling cultural attitudes towards purchasing sex, making it clear that no-one has the right to purchase another person's body for their own pleasure, is key to reducing these abuses which take place every day in British society."