The budgets allocated to exiting prostitution risk being cut in half. AIDES denounces it in an open letter to parliamentarians.
Promises are not kept. When the prostitution law was voted, a social component was planned. The objective was to accompany sex workers to exit this activity. But this program is under threat. The finance law for 2017, under debate in Parliament, plans to divide the appropriations by two. In an open letter to parliamentarians, the president of the AIDES association expresses his anger. “The supposedly comprehensive law turns out to be what was denounced: a purely ideological law of prohibition,” writes Aurélien Beaucamp.
The government promised it during the debates on the prostitution law: the envelope to support sex workers would be substantial. The sum of 20 million euros has been announced on numerous occasions. In reality, the budget corresponds to a range of 10 euros per month and per person. Insufficient, in the eyes of AIDES which denounces “the deleterious effects of the law”, six months after its adoption.
Conflicting messages
The repressive component has been implemented: 250 customers have been fined since April. For the 30,000 prostitutes in France, on the other hand, the support is incomplete. Violence is on the rise, without recognition from the police. The health component is still non-existent. A cruel lack for associations but also doctors. They have in fact predicted an increased isolation of people and a risk of infections, especially sexually transmitted ones.
Halving the allocated funds should not improve the situation, quite the contrary. This budget seems above all to go against the announcements of Laurence Rossignol, Minister of Families, Children and Women’s Rights. On October 18, she affirmed the implementation of the exit and social integration route. It will involve an increase in support for associations of 60%.
But the announcements will indeed be respected according to the Senate. He confirmed on his site that associations supporting prostitutes will see their subsidies increase. Very contradictory messages that call for clarification.
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