Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PARIS, Oct 31, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A French university students' union says an increasing number of women in France are funding their education through the sex trade.
SUD-Etudiant union said 40,000 students, nearly 2 percent of all French university students, are involved in so-called hostess work, freelance work for escort agencies or street prostitution, Britain's The Independent reported Tuesday. The union said a sample survey carried out at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse found that 545 of 30,000 students had at one point been involved in the sex trade.
"As a rule, student prostitution is an individual and occasional activity," said a spokeswoman for the Office Central de la Repression de la Traite des Etres Humains, an anti-slavery group. "It is discreet, difficult to track and not a crime in itself."
SUD-Etudiant attributed the trend to falling subsidies and rising consumerism in the country. A 2000 study of French citizens under 25 found that 100,000 students were living below the poverty line in the country.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
