<<Print>>

Amsterdam's first female mayor has launched plans to overhaul the city's red light district and its window displays, in a bid to protect sex workers from gawping tourists.

In what would be the most radical revamp of the sex trade there since the Dutch legalised prostitution nearly two decades ago, Femke Halsema suggested stopping the practice of sex workers standing in window-fronted rooms, among other options.

Changes were needed because of social shifts, she told Reuters, including the rise of human trafficking and an increase in the number of tourists visiting the district and using their phones to take and post pictures of the women.