Prostitution in Overseas France#Martinique

Overseas regions have identical status to regions in metropolitan France and French law is in force. Selling sex is legal, but related activities such as solicitation and brothel keeping are illegal.{{cite web|title=Sex Work Law - Countries {{!}} Sexuality, Poverty and Law|url=http://spl.ids.ac.uk/sexworklaw/countries|publisher=Institute of Development Studies|access-date=27 December 2017|language=en|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729103225/http://spl.ids.ac.uk/sexworklaw/countries|url-status=dead}} On 6 April 2016, the French National Assembly voted to outlaw the buying of sexual services.[http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2016/04/06/prostitution-le-parlement-adopte-definitivement-la-penalisation-des-clients_4897216_3224.html Prostitution : le Parlement adopte définitivement la pénalisation des clients] 'Le Monde', accessed 7 April 2016

Although illegal, prostitution in French Guiana is common, especially in the gold mining areas of the interior.{{cite news|last1=Bellos|first1=Alex|last2=Oyapock|first2=River|title=Illegal, polluting and dangerous: the gold rush in French Guiana|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/dec/17/pollution.mining|journal=The Guardian|access-date=27 December 2017|date=17 December 2007}} Some people are driven into prostitution by poverty.{{cite web|last1=Fayet|first1=Rosane|title=Why are the people of French Guiana so angry?|url=https://www.equaltimes.org/why-are-the-people-of-french?lang=en#.WkP9Ed9l-M-|website=Equal Times|access-date=27 December 2017|language=en|date=6 April 2017}} The HIV rate is the highest of any French territory, and sex workers are at risk due to inconsistent condom use.{{cite journal|last1=Parriault|first1=Marie-Claire |display-authors=etal. |title=Predictive factors of unprotected sex for female sex workers: first study in French Guiana, the French territory with the highest HIV prevalence|journal=International Journal of STD & AIDS|year=2015|volume=26|issue=8|pages=542–548|publisher=Centre d'Investigation Clinique Antilles Guyane|doi=10.1177/0956462414545794|pmid=25080287|pmc=5225269|s2cid=10366331}}

Women and children from Suriname are victims of sex trafficking in French Guiana.{{cite web|title=France 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2016/258768.htm|website=U.S. Department of State|access-date=27 December 2017}}{{PD-notice}}

Although brothels were outlawed in 1946 by Loi Marthe Richard, the French military continued to run "Bordel militaire de campagne". The last one on French territory was at Kourou until it was closed in 1995 following a complaint of unfair competition from a local pimp.{{cite web|title=France's military brothels: Hidden history of the First World War - France 24|url=http://www.france24.com/en/20141212-france-military-brothels-hidden-history-first-world-war-prostitution|website=France 24|access-date=27 December 2017|date=13 December 2014}}

Despite the law, prostitution occurs in Guadeloupe. The old town centre of Pointe-à-Pitre is taken over by prostitutes from the Dominican Republic plying their trade after dark,{{cite news|last1=Borredon|first1=Laurent|title=Crime and unemployment dog Guadeloupe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/27/young-crime-unemployment-guadeloupe-france|journal=The Guardian|access-date=27 December 2017|date=27 December 2011}}{{cite web|last1=Scordia|first1=Pierre|title=Guadeloupe: a French island somewhere between paradise and desperation – FORM-Idea|url=https://form-idea.com/2017/08/18/guadeloupe-a-french-island-somewhere-between-paradise-and-desperation/|website=Form Idea|access-date=27 December 2017|date=18 August 2017}} and abandoned houses are turned into makeshift brothels.{{cite web|title=Les maisons abandonnées transformées en lieux de prostitution - Économie en Guadeloupe|url=http://www.guadeloupe.franceantilles.fr/actualite/economie/les-maisons-abandonnees-transformees-en-lieux-de-prostitution-452804.php|website=France-Antilles Guadeloupe|access-date=27 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=13 October 2017}} The Grand-Baie area in the Pointe-à-Pitre suburb of Le Gosier is also known for prostitution,{{cite web|title=L'association CASA Gwadloup' à Grand-Baie : un dispositif d'accueil, d'information et de prévention sur les maladies liées au métier du sexe : " …s'il y avait des maisons closes, la situation serait plus facile au niveau de l'hygiène… "|url=http://koezyon-glob.fr/lassociation-casa-gwadloup-a-grand-baie-un-dispositif-daccueil-dinformation-et-de-prevention-sur-les-maladies-liees-au-metier-du-sexe/|website=Koezyon-Glob|access-date=27 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=6 October 2014|archive-date=30 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230120526/http://koezyon-glob.fr/lassociation-casa-gwadloup-a-grand-baie-un-dispositif-daccueil-dinformation-et-de-prevention-sur-les-maladies-liees-au-metier-du-sexe/|url-status=dead}} as is Saint-François, where many prostitutes work.

Dominican prostitutes also work from bars in Le Gosier.{{cite web|title=Guadeloupe : un réseau de prostitution démantelé, trois mis en examen|url=http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/guadeloupe-un-reseau-de-prostitution-demantele-trois-mis-en-examen-17-05-2017-6956058.php|website=Le Parisien.|access-date=27 December 2017|language=fr|date=17 May 2017}} In May 2017 a Dominican prostitution ring was dismantled, and 16 people arrested.{{cite web|title=Prostitution et clandestinité : coup de filet à Grand-Baie - Faits divers en Guadeloupe|url=http://www.guadeloupe.franceantilles.fr/actualite/faits-divers/prostitution-et-clandestinite-coup-de-filet-a-grand-baie-429882.php|website=France-Antilles Guadeloupe|access-date=27 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=16 May 2017}} The 3 ringleaders, 2 men and a woman, were indicted for pimping, procuring and assisting with illegal residence. The ring smuggled in dozens of Dominican women to work at several locations.{{cite web|title=Prostitution : des locations épinglées pour leur service " tout compris " - Faits divers en Guadeloupe|url=http://www.guadeloupe.franceantilles.fr/actualite/faits-divers/prostitution-des-locations-epinglees-pour-leur-service-tout-compris-235538.php|website=France-Antilles Guadeloupe|access-date=27 December 2017|language=fr}}

Le Centre Associatif de Santé et d’Accompagnement sur les risques sexuels (CASA) (eng:The Associative Center for Health and Support on Sexual Risks), who provide support and information to sex workers, especially in the area of sexual health, have called for the decriminalisation of sex work and the opening of brothels.

Prostitutes are known locally as "pangnols".

The first laws on prostitution in Martinique were passed in the 1850s. They were designed to keep prostitutes away from public areas but poorly enforced.{{cite web|last1=Sequin|first1=Caroline|title=Uprooting "Fleurs de Trottoirs":: Displacing Clandestine Prostitution and Negotiating Respectable Sex in Colonial Martinique 1938–47|url=https://aha.confex.com/aha/2017/webprogram/Paper20722.html|website=American Historical Association|access-date=28 December 2017|date=7 January 2017}} In the 1930s, after the emergence of tourism and the start of WW2, a new set of laws were enabled. The new laws targeted prostitution in the bars and restaurants of Fort-de-France, which the colonial authorities believed were a major factor of STIs. As a result, all waitresses and hostesses had to have a valid "certificat de non contagiosité", whether they were prostitutes or not. The aim of the authorities was to move all prostitution into brothels. The women were reluctant to work in the brothels, so prostitution remained in the bars and restaurants.

When the "law Marthe Richard" came into force in 1947, banning brothels, the authorities aim of restricting prostitution to brothels was unachievable.

HIV is a problem on the island, In 1988 it was reported that 50% of sex workers were infected.{{cite web|title=HIV /AIDS Profile: Martinique|url=http://7bn.net/ipc/hiv/martiniq.pdf|website=7 Billion|access-date=28 December 2017}}

In modern-day Martinique, street prostitution is common in the Terres-Sainville district of Fort-de-France. Most of the prostitutes are migrants from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Haiti, Colombia, Brazil and St. Kitts and Nevis, who have come to Martinique seeking a better life.{{cite web|last1=Boulai|first1=Melinda|title=Prostitution : une vie de misère et des rêves d'ailleurs - Toute l'actualité de la Martinique sur Internet - FranceAntilles.fr|url=http://www.martinique.franceantilles.fr/actualite/une/prostitution-une-vie-de-misere-et-des-reves-d-ailleurs-274273.php|website=France-Antilles Martinique|access-date=28 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=4 October 2014}}

Prostitution in Mayotte occurs on the ring road{{cite web|title=Mayotte, la vérité! Attention dur !!!|url=http://philmayotte2013.unblog.fr/2013/08/31/mayotte-la-verite-attention-dur/|website=Philmayotte2013|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=31 August 2013}} and in the villages of Mtsapere and Kaweni in the commune of Mamoudzou.{{cite web|last1=François|first1=Fabrice|title=Mayotte : La prostitution clandestine en augmentation|url=https://www.zinfos974.com/Mayotte-La-prostitution-clandestine-en-augmentation_a51601.html|website=Zinfos 974, l'info de l'ile de La Réunion|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr|date=4 January 2013}} Many of the prostitutes are illegal immigrants from Madagascar and Comoros, who are transported to the islands at night in kwassa-kwassa boats. An area in Passamainty, also part of the Mamoudzou commune, used for drugs and prostitution, was destroyed by locals in July 2016.{{cite web|title=Mayotte : Un quartier de la prostitution détruit par les habitants {{!}} Comores Infos|url=http://www.comores-infos.net/mayotte-un-quartier-de-la-prostitution-detruit-par-les-habitants/|website=Comores Infos|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=10 July 2016}}

Child prostitution is a problem on the island.{{cite web|title=Que devient le chef-lieu de Mayotte le soir? - Na riké hachiri pour MAYOTTE|url=http://penseau976.canalblog.com/archives/2014/04/20/29699686.html|website=Penseau976.|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr|date=20 April 2014}} Some girls, aged from 11 to 15 years old, turn to prostitution through poverty of their families. Before being destroyed by locals, there was an area in Passamainty where underage girls engaged in prostitution to pay for drugs. There is also organised child prostitution of girls trafficked from Madagascar.

Following the French law prohibiting "passive soliciting" in 2003,{{cite web|last1=Lichfield|first1=John|title=French police turn attention to 'the pimp on the corner' - Europe - World - The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-police-turn-attention-to-the-pimp-on-the-corner-529320.html|website=The Independent|access-date=29 December 2017|date=21 March 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014070817/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-police-turn-attention-to-the-pimp-on-the-corner-529320.html |archive-date= 14 October 2012}} street prostitution in Réunion was greatly reduced.{{cite web|title=Les prostituées de La Réunion se mettent à l'heure d'Internet|url=http://www.panapress.com/Les-prostituees-de-La-Reunion-se-mettent-a-l-heure-d-internet--13-696095-18-lang3-index.html|website=Panapress|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr|date=7 July 2003}} Many prostitutes now use classified advertisements in newspapers such as "Clicanoo" (Journal de l'île de La Réunion){{cite web|title=Prostitution sur Clicanoo|url=https://www.lepiratedelareunion.net/Prostitution-sur-Clicanoo_a1156.html|website=Le Pirate de la Réunion|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr|date=11 April 2011}} and the internet. Some students at the University of La Réunion use prostitution to fund their way through university.{{cite web|last1=Robert|first1=Gabriel|title=Social : Etudiants : de la précarité à la prostitution|url=http://www.ipreunion.com/photo-du-jour/reportage/2013/09/02/social-etudiants-de-la-precarite-a-la-prostitution,21767.html|website=Imaz Press Réunion : l'actualité de la Réunion en photos|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr-Fr|date=2 September 2013}}

Street prostitution still occurs in Saint-Denis (the capital city) and in Saint-Pierre, especially along the waterfronts.{{cite web|last1=Legros|first1=Geoffroy Géraud|title=Prostitution : pour l'Abolition, résolument|url=http://7lameslamer.net/prostitution-pour-l-abolition.html|website=7 Lames la Mer|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=10 November 2013}} Many of the prostitutes are of foreign origin, mostly from Madagascar (85%){{cite web|title=La prostitution de plus en plus risquée à la Réunion|url=http://www.linfo.re/la-reunion/faits-divers/la-prostitution-de-plus-en-plus-risquee-a-la-reunion|website=Linfo|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr|date=2 November 2009}} and Mauritius. Often they come to the island on a 15-day tourist visa. There is evidence of organised prostitution rings bringing women from Madagascar{{cite web|title=La Réunion – Recrutement de prostituées depuis Madagascar|url=https://mcmparis.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/la-reunion-recrutement-de-prostituees-depuis-madagascar/|website=Mouvement des Citoyens Malagasy de Paris|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=11 December 2015}} and Mauritius.{{cite web|title=Des mauriciennes impliquées dans un réseau de prostitution à l'ile de la Réunion. {{!}} TOP FM|url=http://www.topfmradio.com/media-center/news/des-mauriciennes-impliquees-dans-un-reseau-de-prostitution-lile-de-la-reunion|website=Top FM Radio|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr|date=17 December 2013}}

Since 2015, "Familial Planning 974" have been offering outreach services to prostitutes on the island. Services include advice and information, STI screening, distribution of condoms and gels and self-defence classes.{{cite web|title=" Belle de Nuit Sud " Le Planning Familial 974 - La Réunion|url=http://reunion.planning-familial.org/pages/%C2%AB-belle-de-nuit-sud-%C2%BB-00243|website=Reunion Planning Familial.|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr}}

Overseas collectivities are part of France, but they have their own regional assemblies and legislature.

Prostitution in French Polynesia is legal, while brothels are not.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebasetrip.com/en/french-polynesia-alcohol-drugs-prostitution?from=united-states|title=French Polynesia - Alcohol, drugs & prostitution - The Basetrip|website=The Basetrip|language=en|access-date=9 December 2017}} In French Polynesia's capital, Papeete, it was estimated that there were about 100 prostitutes working the streets in 2012. Of these 30% were female, 20% male and 50% transsexual (known as "raerae").{{cite web |url= http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/onairhighlights/street-prostitutes-on-the-increase-in-french-polynesia |title= Street prostitutes on the increase in French Polynesia |last= Hofman |first= Helene |date= 15 February 2012 |website= ABC Radio Australia |access-date= 21 November 2017 }}

When Captain Samuel Wallis discovered Tahiti in 1767, he traded with the islanders for fresh provisions. The Polynesians had no source of iron, and the women sold sex for nails.{{harvnb|Bolyanatz|2004|p=88}} Wallis had to ban shore leave for the crew for fear of the ship collapsing as so many nails had been removed from the structure.{{harvnb|Henningham|1992|p=2}} When Captain Cook arrived in 1769, the price had risen from one nail to three nails. By the time of Cook's 3rd visit in 1774, the currency had changed from nails to European clothes and red parrot feathers (considered sacred).{{harvnb|Sturma|2002|p=25}}

Although a small island (population 9,279 in 2013),{{cite web|url=http://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?reg_id=26&ref_id=23855 |title=Recensement de la population en Guadeloupe - 402 119 habitants au 1er janvier 2013 |author=INSEE|access-date=21 May 2016 |language=fr|author-link=INSEE }} there is evidence of some prostitution.{{cite web|title=Les risques sanitaires à Saint-Barthélemy - Voyage Zen - Conseils voyage et santé|url=http://www.voyagezen.fr/risques-sanitaires-saint-barthelemy/|website=Voyage Zen - Conseils voyage et santé|access-date=29 December 2017|language=fr-FR|date=12 August 2013}}

The growth of tourism starting in the 1970s caused an increase in prostitution in Saint Martin.{{harvnb|Benoit|1999|pp=27–42}} Although outlawed in 1946 by the "Loi de Marthe Richard", brothels were tolerated until the introduction of the new Penal code in 1991. One hotel, now closed, was reserved for French civil servants and reputedly offered the guests European prostitutes.

Over the years women from different countries have migrated to the country and worked as prostitutes. In the 1960s it was women from Haiti, Dominican women followed in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, Latin American women from Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil came to the island. Later in that decade Asian, Jamaican and Guyanese prostitutes arrived. Currently most prostitutes are from Haiti, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Jamaica.{{cite web|last1=Le Devin|first1=Willy|title=Saint-Martin : une île, plusieurs mondes|url=http://www.liberation.fr/france/2017/09/15/saint-martin-une-ile-plusieurs-mondes_1596738|website=Libération|access-date=30 December 2017|language=fr|date=15 September 2017}}

Despite laws prohibiting soliciting, street prostitution still exists, especially in the Quartier-d'Orleans.{{cite web|title=France's hurricane-hit St Martin on guard for health threats|url=http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Frances_hurricane-hit_St_Martin_on_guard_for_health_threats_999.html|website=Terra Daily|access-date=30 December 2017|date=16 September 2017}}

This group of small islands off the coast of Canada is the only remaining French territory in the former New France. Siegfried Borelli and Willy Starck found no evidence of prostitution on the islands.{{harvnb|Borelli|Starck|1957}}

Uvea (Wallis Island), became a place where whalers would stop to take on fresh provisions in the 19th century. The women of the island engaged in prostitution with the sailors.{{harvnb|Fischer|2002|p=115}} In 1870, Amelia Tokagahahau Aliki Queen of Uvea, approved a new legal code written by French missionary Pierre Bataillon. The code included fines for prostitution.{{harvnb|Kirk|2012|p=160}}{{cite web|title=The World at War - Wallis & Futuna 1616 - 1961|url=http://www.schudak.de/timelines/wallis&futuna1616-1961.html|website=Schudak|access-date=29 December 2017}} The islands of Uvea, Futuna and Sigave became a French protectorate in 1889 and French law came into force.

Whilst the three kings of the islands, assisted by a prime minister and a ‘chefferie’, have limited powers to legislate on local matters, the laws of France are applicable in the country.{{cite web|title=Wallis and Futuna country brief|url=http://dfat.gov.au/geo/wallis-futuna/pages/wallis-and-futuna-country-brief.aspx|website=Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade|access-date=29 December 2017|language=en-us}} These include the laws on prostitution, e.g. prohibition of purchasing sex, solicitation, pimping and brothels.

There is one Overseas territory.

The French Southern and Antarctic Lands consist of small islands off the coast of Madagascar, small isolated islands in the south Indian Ocean and France's claim in Antarctica. The islands are uninhabited, or sparsely inhabited (total population 150 in summer, 300 in winter), so there is no known prostitution.

Following the 1998 Nouméa Accord, the islands of New Caledonia are moving from an overseas collectivity to a self-governing nation. On 12 December 2016, the government added the French Law of June 2016 that criminalised the purchasers of sex to its Penal Code.{{cite web |url= http://www.juridoc.gouv.nc/JuriDoc/JdJonc.nsf/0/C5582C1841FC0F984B25809E0083A79A/$File/9361.pdf?OpenElement |title= Journal Officiel de la Nouvelle-Caledonie |date= 3 January 2017 |website= Juridoc |access-date= 25 November 2017 }} Related activities such as brothel-keeping and proxenetism have been illegal since 1946.

In May 1940, the French Army brought a large house in the capital Nouméa. They leased it to a Mme Benitier to set up a brothel. This was recognised as a "maison de tolérance" and known as The Pink House. The house became popular with American troops during their build up in the country in 1942/3.{{harvnb|Munholland|Munholland|2006|p=152}} American military police and medics were on duty at the house to keep order and prevent the spread of STIs.{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/12/opinion/l-korean-comfort-women-not-prostitutes-new-caledonia-1944-991792.html |title= Korean 'Comfort Women' Not Prostitutes; New Caledonia, 1944 |last= Brier |first= Morris |date= 24 February 1992 |journal= The New York Times |access-date= 25 November 2017 }}

Clipperton Island, off the coast of Mexico, is uninhabited so no prostitution occurs.

• Prostitution in France

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite journal|last1=Benoit|first1=Catherine|title=Sex, AIDS, migration, and prostitution : human trafficking in the Caribbean|journal=New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids|volume=73|issue=3–4|pages= 27–42|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41125715|access-date=30 December 2017|doi=10.1163/13822373-90002576|date=1 July 1999|doi-access=free}}
• {{cite book |last1=Bolyanatz |first1=Alexander H. |title=Pacific Romanticism: Tahiti and the European Imagination |date=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780897897877 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-wu3RjyG0PoC&q=sex+for+nails+tahiti&pg=PA88 |language=en}}
• {{cite book|last1=Borelli|first1=Siegfried|last2=Starck|first2=Willy|title=Die Prostitution als psychologisches Problem|date=1 January 1957|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3642863509|page=54|language=de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pOanBgAAQBAJ&q=Die+Prostitution+als+psychologisches+Problem&pg=PP4}}
• {{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=Steven R. |title=A History of the Pacific Islands |date=2002 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=9781403913753 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kVodBQAAQBAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Henningham |first1=Stephen |title=France and the South Pacific: A Contemporary History |date=1992 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824813055 |url=https://archive.org/details/francesouthpacif00henn_0 |url-access=registration |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kirk |first1=Robert W. |title=Paradise Past: The Transformation of the South Pacific, 1520-1920 |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786469789 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_j8-YmmA7-EC&q=Paradise+past+%3A+the+transformation+of+the+South+Pacific+prostitution&pg=PA160 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1= Munholland |first1= K |last2= Munholland |first2= J. Kim |date=11 December 2006 |title= Rock of Contention: Free French and Americans at War in New Caledonia, 1940-1945 |publisher= Berghahn Books |isbn= 978-1845453008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEimktLz-lAC&q=pink+house&pg=PA152 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Sturma |first1=Michael |title=South Sea Maidens: Western Fantasy and Sexual Politics in the South Pacific |date=2002 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780313316746 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ttl3FT0UqngC&q=South+Sea+Maidens%3A+Western+Fantasy+and+Sexual+Politics+in+the+South+Pacific+nails&pg=PA25 |language=en}}

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Category:Overseas France

Overseas France