With re-containment, sex workers once again face the impossibility of continuing their activity normally. Between precariousness and vulnerability, their associations are sounding the alarm.
How will I pay my rent? Feed my children? And myself ? These are the kinds of questions sex workers (SWWs) ask themselves in times of confinement. The fear of catching the coronavirus in fact frightens clients, in addition to weighing on those concerned. They were already precarious and endangered by the policies penalizing their activity, as explained on the blog of Liberation Ma lumière rouge. With the pandemic, the situation becomes downright untenable.
The first confinement in spring 2020 had already been a painful ordeal, as pointed out by Amar, a sex worker and member of STRASS (Syndicat du Travail Sexuel). "It was very difficult for the sex workers, but also for the community health associations. They did an extraordinary job to help the TDS who had to suddenly stop their activities ", she explains. Essential structures, because on the public authority side, our interlocutor is without appeal: "Marlène Schiappa had clearly announced that no emergency fund for TDS would be raised. Where the government failed, these associations took over by organizing marauding, distribution of food packages and medical kits. They are the ones who tried to find emergency accommodation solutions, who appealed to the generosity of donations from the public by opening fundraisers ", recalls Amar.
A second perilous confinement
Amar recalls that the announcement of the first confinement last spring put "a sudden stop to all our activities, without the majority of us being eligible for the aid offered by the government." And that during the deconfinement, they and their colleagues hoped to resume their activities in order to "go back up the slope" financially. But the reality was quite different. "We have faced an increasingly rare clientele, more and more inclined to violence or, at the very least, very little serious, only very rarely honoring appointments", deplores the member of STRASS. For her, this second confinement occurs in a context where those concerned are already extremely fragile and precarious, and "where the vast majority of us do not know how to provide for basic needs: pay rent, do shopping, provide for the needs of our family, etc." Double punishment: Amar feels invisible to the government, despite the warnings of the previous months. No lessons have therefore been learned, according to her, from the previous confinement, nor any viable protective measure put in place.
What solution then to survive? "We fear, in addition to precariousness and overexposure to violence, that we will no longer be able to protect ourselves from the virus and be forced to take risks in order to be able to guarantee a minimum wage, Amar alarmed. We also fear the impact that this second confinement will have on our mental health: we have had to deplore, in recent months, burnouts, suicides, mainly due to institutional putophobia and transphobia, as well as to conditions very complex life ", testifies the sex worker.
If we estimate the number of TDS in France at 40,000, how can we hope that aid of 90,000 euros will be significant?
Finally financial aid … too low
On Monday, November 2, 2020, the National Assembly voted an amendment to the 2021 finance bill, which provides for 90,000 euros for prevention among sex workers. According to the deputies carrying this amendment, yet from the LaRem majority, "the Secretary of State responsible for equality between men and women has proved unable to provide an appropriate response to the increased precariousness of people in prostitution". Good news, according to Amar, who sees it "a not symbolically important from a political point of view. The work of grassroots associations (such as Grisélidis, Cabiria, Acceptess-T, Le Bus des Femmes, Paloma) which are on the front line for the social, material and psychological support of TDS begins to be recognized ", she welcomes.
Our interlocutor adds that "The aids which have hitherto been granted to community health associations were conditioned by the commitment of the TDS in an exit route. This ideological approach was extremely deleterious, and it is time to change course". For STRASS, we must also do more than the 90,000 euros promised. "It is obvious that this aid intended for associations is very insufficient, especially in proportion to the number of people that these associations in the field support on a daily basis. If we estimate at 40,000 the number of TDS in France, how can we hope that aid 90,000 euros is significant? We hope thereafter more pragmatic decisions, which allow TDS and associations in the field to face this confinement. " For this, the associations continue their work of persuasion with the public authorities, while ensuring the vital support of the most vulnerable. Proof that beyond the emergency, substantive work must be carried out.
Radical change in sex work policy
The demands of Amar and STRASS do not stop at this single period of pandemic: above all, they demand recognition of fundamental rights, rather than the criminalization underway today. In fact, clients run the risk of fines if they are caught in the act, forcing the TDS to work in remote places that are therefore more dangerous, or to accept harsher practices, such as non- wearing a condom. Another example: apartment rental companies risk being tried for pimping when they rent a place to live from a TDS, which leads them to refuse / evict these people. This policy only creates losers, people who suffer from this sector to those who suffer the exploitation of networks and pimps. Amar therefore calls for a radical change in treatment. "In a health crisis like the one we are going through, we must go beyond the ideology which until then has been a pretext to stigmatize us, repress us and make us more precarious. It is therefore necessary to take into account the experiences of all sex workers, because our lives and our conditions are at stake. The government must therefore urgently care about our lives. ", she explains.
The Fédération Parapluie Rouge, a grouping of community health associations and self-support groups, made the request very recently, arguing that"There is an urgent need to create an emergency fund for TDS in order to compensate for the loss of income during the lockdown." It also demands a moratorium on fines, the penalization of customers and anti-prostitution orders, as well as the regularization of undocumented TDS, which are extremely fragile. These are all essential conditions for a lasting way out of the crisis.