AMSTERDAM — The Amsterdam experiment with a tolerated, police-patrolled street prostitution zone offering medical and social work assistance to sex workers has come to an end.

Amsterdam Council resolved on Wednesday night to close the street prostitution zone on the Theemsweg due to ongoing problems with illegal prostitution and organised crime. The council said it no longer wished to operate an area where women continually fall victim to human traffickers.

The executive council — made up the city's mayor and aldermen and women — resolved last month to close the zone, located in the Westelijk Havengebied. But an official closure required the approval of the entire council.

Mayor Job Cohen had previously said the situation was "a devils dilemma" because it "appeared impossible to create a safe and controllable zone for women that was not open to abuse by organised crime". On the other hand, he said unmanageable street prostitution could spread again across the city.

Sounds pretty odd to me, like this policy is being tested by scientists and careful observers rather than politicans and ideologists. I don't even see any I-told-you-so's.