CHILDREN IN DANGER | France 2 | Envoyé Spécial

Child prostitution is often associated with countries far from France, like Thailand, the Philippines or Cameroon. But France too suffers from this plague. Prostitution that we were able to observe in the heart of Paris, in broad daylight, and before the eyes of thousands of passers-by. In France around one prostitute in three is a minor (18,000 adult prostitutes and some 8,000 minors). A phenomenon that is on the increase. With the crisis, associations which go out on the streets saw a 50% rise in the number of minor prostitutes between 2007 and 2008. More than half of the prostitutes they met never have contact with the police. A third of these prostitutes are French, run-aways or estranged from their families, and two thirds are foreigners: young Romanian “ROMs” subject to “kamata” (debts owed to people smugglers for getting them into the country illegally), or young Nigerians exploited by powerful criminal gangs. However, this prostitution is not limited to young people from deprived backgrounds, it also affects the chic neighbourhoods. Some minors, with around 1,000 Euros pocket money per month, turn to prostitution to buy cocaine or designer clothes. A report that also shows the work done by those fighting daily in the streets to help these children escape from hell.