France outlaws paying for sex, while sex workers protested

France have passed a law that makes paying for sex illegal. A convicted offender will be fined up to €3,750 (£3,027, $4,274) and would also have to attend classes to learn about the conditions faced by prostitutes. It took more than two years to pass the law, while there was protest by sex workers outside the parliament in Paris on Wednesday during the final proceedings for the law. The demonstrators carried banners and placards one of which read: "Don't liberate me, I'll take care of myself". Members of the Strass sex workers' union say the law will affect the livelihoods of France's sex workers, estimated to number between 30,000 and 40,000. Sweden was the first country to criminalise those who pay for sex rather than the prostitutes, introducing the law in 1999.Norway in 2008, Iceland in 2009, and Northern Ireland in 2014 have all adopted the Swedish law.Earlier this year, the European parliament approved a resolution calling for the law to be adopted throughout the continent. But those against the law warn that the model makes sex work more dangerous. Supporters of the law argue that it increases safety.  

The legislation will also make it easier for foreign prostitutes to get a temporary residence permit in France if they agree to find jobs outside prostitution, says Socialist MP Maud Olivier, who sponsored the legislation. He told the Associated Press: "The most important aspect of this law is to accompany prostitutes and give them identity papers, because we know that 85% of prostitutes here are victims of trafficking." The law was passed in the final vote on the bill in the lower house of parliament by 64 to 12 with 11 abstentions. It supersedes legislation from 2003 that penalised sex workers for soliciting. Prostitution itself is not a crime in France, but pimping, human trafficking, brothels and and buying sex from a minor are all already against the law.