PARIS: As Paris hosts the 2024 Olympics, undocumented Chinese sex worker Hua says increased police patrols threaten her livelihood.
“I really feel pressured, always scared. Every day there are police checks,” said the 55-year-old, who used another name to remain anonymous.
“So I'm going out to work more and more.”
About 40,000 people — mostly women — are trafficked or exploited for sex in France, according to government and charity estimates.
According to French law, it is legal to sell sex, but it is illegal to exploit people or pay for sex, placing criminal responsibility on pimps and clients.
But it is more difficult if the prostitute is undocumented.
“I'm so afraid of being arrested that I won't work on the streets during the Olympics,” added the divorcee, who came to France seven years ago hoping to earn a living as a cleaner. breast cancer.
“If they arrest me, I will be sent back to China and they will not give me treatment there.”
Inside the offices of the Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) charity in the northeast Paris suburb of Belleville, she broke down in tears.
“I don't understand, what did we do to people?” said the Chinese woman, who says she sometimes sells her better customer service for 20 euros ($21) because “they don't have money, and neither do I.”
In another part of Paris, on a street famous for the sex trade near the city center, Mylene Juste was eyeing a customer.
He said he was particularly troubled by new safety laws restricting pedestrian and traffic movements around Paris.
“We won't be able to reach all the restrictions,” said Juste, 50, a prostitute for 22 years.
“And I don't think the passing tourists will jump on us.” So we're leaving here,” he said.
Ahead of the opening ceremony on the banks of the Seine River for the two-week sports fiesta that took place on Friday, prostitutes like Hua and Juste disappeared from the scene. they were in Paris.
But with most of the sex trade on the Internet these days, anti-sex police are focusing their efforts there as well.
“Customers go to a website, enter a category, price and time,” a female police officer specializing in the issue told AFP.
It's like ordering food online, “except the girls” deliver, he said, requesting anonymity because of the nature of his job.
Medecins du Monde, which also tries to support prostitutes in general, said it recently saw more than 46,000 ads in one evening on a popular website.
Through the charity's Jasmine project, since 2019 prostitutes have reported tens of thousands of “dangerous” or “dangerous” customers to warn others about them.
Thursday coincided with a landmark ruling by the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which ruled that France's conviction did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights. a prostitute.
The ruling has disappointed some right-wing groups who say France's policy only increases the stigmatization of prostitutes.
“Criminalization increases physical assaults, sexual violence, and police abuse of sex workers, but has no apparent effect on ending human trafficking,” said Erin Kilbride, women's and LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
French authorities expect sexist gangs from Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay to continue advertising during the games.
They estimate that high-end prostitution may increase among all wealthy visitors.
But they also remain concerned about the increase in the number of minors being abused in recent years, including vulnerable girls from the state's criminal justice system.
About 20,000 minors are victims of sexual exploitation in France, according to a children's rights group fighting prostitution.
A court in May jailed five men for paying for sex with a 12-year-old girl, in a rare case of such cases going to court.
He was arrested after running away from home.
