Victims in irregular situations are less well cared for in French police stations, according to Amnesty International

Amnesty International unveils its new investigation on Wednesday, September 18. It reveals that sex workers, victims of rape or sexual assault, are not always able to file a complaint. Particularly when they are in an irregular situation or transgender. The organization, surrounded by about twenty associations, has worked on the subject for the first time in France and denounces a “double violence”. These women are victims a first time, then a second time of the prejudices of the police: a double punishment that must stop for the associations.

In this edifying report which will be submitted to the future government, we discover that when an irregular or transgender sex worker wishes to file a complaint after a rape or sexual assault, it is an obstacle course.

An unbearable situation for Violaine Husson, from Cimade, an association which helps undocumented immigrants: “We consider that foreigners are used to being victims of violence. When they arrive in France and are victims of violence again, we say: ‘Well, that’s part of their journey.’ That’s just no longer possible to hear. A person who is the victim of an offence must be able to be protected on French territory regardless of their situation.”

Amnesty International also reveals that some victims find themselves implicated once they have passed through the doors of a police station or brigade. Lola Schulmann is the author of the report: “Foreign women who are going to be detained or even expelled when they simply went to a police station to be protected because they were victims of sexual violence. And so, we have identified many obstacles, many barriers to these women who need protection more than anyone else because they are overexposed to violence.”

Faced with these situations, the NGO wants more specific training for law enforcement in addition to that already existing in the reception of women victims of violence.