PARIS: As Paris hosts the 2024 Olympics, illegal Chinese sex worker Hua says increased police patrols are threatening her livelihood.
“I feel really pressured and constantly scared. Every day the police check me,” said the 55-year-old, who asked not to be identified by name.
“So I started going to work less and less.”
According to government and charity estimates, around 40,000 people, mostly women, are in prostitution or are sexually exploited in France.
Under French law, prostitution is permitted, but exploiting someone or paying for sex is illegal, with criminal liability falling on both the prostitute and the client.
However, the situation becomes more complicated when the sex worker is an illegal alien.
“I'm so scared of being arrested that I don't want to work on the streets during the Olympics,” said the divorced woman, who came to France seven years ago in search of a decent salary as a housekeeper and cleaner, adding that she has since been diagnosed with breast cancer.
“If they arrest me, I will be sent back to China, and they will not provide me with medical care there.”
She wept at the offices of the World Doctors' Association charity in Belleville, northeast of Paris.
“I don't understand. What have we done to whom?” said the Chinese woman, who said she sometimes sells her services for 20 euros ($21) to more friendly customers. “They don't have money and I don't have money.”
In another part of Paris, near the city center, on a street notorious for prostitution, Mylène Just was looking for clients.
She said the new security rules restricting pedestrian and traffic movement around Paris were most inconvenient.
“Our regular customers won’t be able to come because of all the restrictions,” said Juste, 50, who has been a sex worker for 22 years.
“And I don't think any tourists passing by will rush at us, so we get out of here,” she added.
Ahead of the opening ceremony of a two-week sports festival on the Seine River on Friday, sex workers like Roya and Just have all but disappeared from their usual Parisian haunts.
But these days, most prostitution takes place online, so police cracking down on sexual exploitation are also focusing their efforts on online channels.
“Customers go to the website, choose a category, a price and a time,” a police officer specialising in the matter told AFP.
“It’s like ordering food online,” she said, requesting anonymity because of the nature of her job, “but it’s girls” who get delivered.
Médecine du Monde, a group that provides virtual support to sex workers, recently said more than 46,000 ads were posted on a popular website in a single evening.
Since 2019, sex workers have reported tens of thousands of “risky” or “dangerous” clients through the charity’s Jasmine Project, warning others.
Ahead of the Olympics, a major ruling was handed down on Thursday by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, which ruled that France's treatment of sex workers as clients does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
The ruling disappointed some right-wing groups who argued that France's policies only served to further stigmatise sex workers.
“Criminalization increases physical attacks, sexual violence and police abuse against people selling sex, while having no demonstrable effect on ending trafficking,” said Erin Kilbride, women’s and LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
French authorities expect gangs promoting women from Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay to continue advertising during the Olympics.
They speculate that the high-class prostitution will increase because of the large number of wealthy visitors.
But they remain concerned about the rise in abuse of minors in recent years, including vulnerable young girls in state care systems.
According to Action Against Child Prostitution, a human rights group, around 20,000 minors are sexually exploited in France.
In May, a court sentenced five men to prison for paying for sex with a 12-year-old girl, a rare case that has gone to trial.
After running away from home, she was forced into prostitution.
