(Paris) “In two clicks, the girl is with the client”: traditionally displayed in the street, prostitution is now nestled on a large scale on the internet. A new deal for a very lucrative activity in a Paris that will welcome millions of visitors for the Olympic Games.
“Before, there were networks of real organized crime. Today, everything is done online, they book a room, send a taxi to the girl’s house to take her to the place,” explains Agnès (name changed), an investigator with the Brigade for the Repression of Prostitution (BRP) for seven years.
“Customers log on to a site, check the category, the price, the time. And the girl comes to them,” she sums up. The model is based on that of takeaway food delivery services, “but these are girls,” compares the police officer, who expects “a lot of supply and a lot of demand” during the Olympics.
Its chief, Divisional Commissioner Virginie Dreesen, is “more in the questioning than really in the forecasting”, while there is no precedent in terms of events of such a large scale in Europe, in this new era of online prostitution (80% of the activity).
“As some people will be able to have their dinner and drugs delivered, won’t there also be the temptation to have a sexual service delivered?” she considers, referring to “a form of ‘uberisation'”.
Visible on public roads until the early 2000s, the activity has become much more hidden thanks to the internet, particularly after the COVID-19 epidemic.
Since 2016, a law has made prostitutes victims. The client, although rarely prosecuted in practice, is now liable to a fine of 1,500 euros ($2,240).
Many sex worker defense associations denounce this law. According to them, it creates more precariousness and violence against prostitutes – 90% are women, according to estimates –, with the client imposing his conditions (lower rates, acts without condoms, etc.) since he risks a fine.
Amar Protesta (working name) is 33 years old. After finding her first client on the street when she came of age – a service in exchange for a meal – she moved to online prostitution to pay for her studies, and has never stopped since “because it was a very strong lever for financial emancipation.”
“I have a lot of regulars and fortunately so because when I was posting ads, I was exposed to unheard-of violence. I was attacked, particularly because I refused a sexual practice,” says Amar, for whom “it’s not the worst job in the world,” complaining about a law that gives him the “impression of being under guardianship.”
As the Olympic Games (July 26–August 11) approach, she is worried that she will be reported when she is at the hotel with her clients. Awareness campaigns have been launched, including inviting people to report cases of sexual exploitation.
Tidal wave of announcements
According to data provided by associations, there are approximately 40,000 people working as prostitutes in France.
The vast majority now work via the internet. The Jasmine program, initiated by Médecins du Monde, which organizes virtual patrols to break the isolation of female workers, recently recorded 46,668 ads on one of the most popular specialized sites in one evening.
A reporting platform with an alert system has been operational since 2019 to combat violence. More than 65,000 reports have been made for clients categorized from “risky” to “very dangerous.”
On the street, however, prostitution has not disappeared.
It is organized territorially, with Chinese women in the districts of Belleville, Porte de Choisy, Crimée and La Fourche. Médecins du Monde follows at least 800 of them per year.
In the Parisian woods, the BRP estimates the community at nearly 400 prostitutes in total: Brazilian, Peruvian and Algerian transgender people in the Boulogne area; Nigerians – a network in sharp decline – Cameroonians or Romanians in the Vincennes area.
A few days before the Games, the paths bordering the woods, posted with no parking signs and under increased police surveillance, have already emptied of most of the prostitutes’ vans, for the duration of the Olympic interlude, noted an AFP journalist.
Luxury or “city”
So where could the supply come from during the Olympics? Perhaps from Central American networks, which for two or three years have constituted “the vast majority of prostitution activity in the Paris region (Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay) and of pimping in the city,” according to the BRP.
This latter phenomenon has exploded in recent years, with very young girls, often minors, who have broken away from their families and societies, frequently being recruited by other young girls into shelters.
As for a possible surge in demand during the Olympic Games, the Paris prosecutor’s office is wondering, in light of its information, about a “significant increase in demand with the arrival in Paris” of people who want entertainment, “with significant financial means”. But it is counting on the difficulties of access and the strong presence of security forces to dissuade them.
This arrival of people with high purchasing power could also motivate “escorts”, these mobile luxury prostitutes “very venal and looking for the pigeon”, estimates a police source, adding however not to have “any perspective on the Olympic Games, it will perhaps be very discreet.”
In front of the door of her building on rue Saint-Denis, a historic district of street prostitution, Mylène Juste spends her last hours “looking for prospects”, her job for 22 years.
She will be gone before the Games. “Our regulars won’t be able to move around with the restrictions. And I don’t think the tourists, when they come, will jump on us. So we’re going to get out of here!”