PARIS, April 7 (UPI) -- A new French law effectively shifting the criminality of prostitution onto the client instead of the sex worker, has been met by protests from prostitutes.
France's National Assembly on Wednesday passed the law 64-12 imposing a $1,707 fine for those who break it. Under the new law, the previous ban on solicitation will be overturned and $5.4 million will be set aside annually to encourage sex workers to quit the trade.
The comprehensive law, regarded as major social reform, has been argued in the National Assembly since 2013.
French Socialist MP Maud Olivier, the sponsor of the legislation, said the change was "fundamental to reverse this balance of power." She said clients had to be informed they are funding prostitution rings and that prostitutes should be seen as victims.
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"The goal is to diminish [prostitution], protect prostitutes who want to quit and change mentalities" she told French newspaper Le Monde.
About 60 sex workers protested the bill outside Parliament as the final vote neared, some carrying signs reading "Don't liberate me, I'll take care of myself."
Some sex workers suggested the new law it will obligate them to work in more secluded areas and away from police.
"We will simply face more poverty, more violence and more stigmatization," Morgane Merteuil, a spokeswoman for sex workers' union Strass, told the news website The Local on Wednesday. Other groups, including France's foremost AIDS organization noted in a joint statement that about 80 percent of France's approximately 30,000 sex workers are foreigners.
"How can someone stop sex work without residency papers, long-term housing or sufficient cash allocations?' the statement asked.
