TESTIMONY
It is a painful subject to which TF1 devotes a mini-series on Thursday evening, entitled Runaways. Apart from the international channels of child trafficking, the prostitution of minors does exist in France. A report commissioned by the government estimates that 7,000 to 10,000 miners are affected, and the figure has been rising steadily for five years. These are young people who often suffer from a great emotional difficulty. Europe 1 went to Lille to two associations which take care of collecting these minors.
“Under 15, they don’t necessarily say it”
“My eyes were crying, I was really uncomfortable. The client must have noticed but he didn’t care.” This strong testimony is that of Julie, 17 years old today. The young girl had a complicated life course where she was tossed around placements in foster care. His activities do not always take place in the street: parties, passes in Airbnb … Social networks greatly facilitate the prostitution of minors, and the pimp is often the boyfriend.
In Lille, the Solfa association welcomes these minors in semi-autonomy. At first, they can continue their activities to rebuild themselves and speak freely to the psychologist Céline Carissimo. “They tell us that the younger they are, the higher the prices are,” she said. “But at the level of customers, there is a threshold not to be exceeded. 15 years goes by, below 15 years, they do not necessarily say it”, notes the psychologist.
A government plan to fight this phenomenon
This age of 15 was set by law to assume sexual consent. Money is the vicious circle for these minors, like 12-year-old Julie and Jessie. “We make 200 euros per day, which is 10,000 euros per month,” explains the first. “It’s not easy money, it’s quick money,” says the second.
These large sums are used in particular to buy all kinds of drugs. The minister in charge of children, Adrien Taquet, is due to present a plan in mid-October to fight against underage prostitution.
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