Life under lockdown ups precarity for France's prostitutes

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With their health in jeopardy and customers evaporating, sex workers in France are struggling as the novel coronavirus threatens their livelihoods -- and there is no safety net in sight.

Many are being forced onto the streets as they lose their incomes, at a time when police are enforcing government orders for people to stay at home.

France has been in lockdown for a week, with only essential trips outside allowed, in a bid to halt the acceleration of the virus' spread. "I have no choice since I work on the street and I travel to people's homes," said Pamela, a 46-year-old prostitute from the southwestern city of Toulouse who stopped working when the lockdown was announced.

Solicitations have not completely dried up, she said, but she has decided to ignore them: "Pay a fine of 135 euros ($145) for a client at 50 euros, no..." However, if the lockdown continues, her meagre savings will no longer be enough, she added.

"I will have to take risks. Even if I have two clients a week, it would at least pay for food," she said.

Her name, and those of the other prostitutes quoted have been changed for this story.

"The situation is dramatic," worries Sarah-Marie Maffesoli, a programme coordinator at the human rights organisation Doctors of the World.

"There are almost no more customers. How long will they be able to stop working?" she said.

"Being healthy without being able to eat or feed one's children is complicated."