French officials continued to rely largely on anti-pimping provisions of the country's penal code to prosecute suspected sex trafficking offenses.
[2] The national government and city of Paris continued to partner with NGOs in order to provide trafficking victims with a network of services and shelters during the reporting period.
One NGO reported it received 20 percent of its budget from the government in 2009 but had to seek private funding in order to provide temporary housing for trafficking victims.
To address this deficiency, the government reported it continued to provide mandatory training to all law enforcement personnel to increase their identification and awareness of potential trafficking victims in 2009.
[2] A 2009 Human Rights Watch Report cited the French government for alleged abusive police treatment and the forced removal of unaccompanied minors from Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The report described French authorities’ policy of detaining unaccompanied minors, including potential trafficking victims, in a designated "transit zone" at the airport.
French authorities failed to screen these children for indications of trafficking, treating them as irregular migrants, which resulted in their deportation and which could make them vulnerable to re-trafficking or persecution in their home countries.
In January 2010, the government sponsored a nationwide conference that brought together law enforcement, magistrates, and NGOs to improve partnerships in order to better protect victims and prevent trafficking.
In October 2009, the government announced the creation of a public-private partnership to address child sports trafficking and committed $2.74 million towards the initiative.
In 2009, ECPAT France launched a progressive public awareness campaign in cooperation with Air France, over which the government exercises considerable influence, to target French child sex tourists; the campaign stressed the legal consequences of such sexual exploitation crimes committed abroad and the government's commitment to prosecute these crimes in French courts, imposing strong prison sentences for convicted offenders.
[2] In March 2009, the government convicted two French nationals for aggravated sex tourism offenses they committed in Southeast Asia; both received the maximum sentences of seven years.
In September 2009, French Police dismantled a makeshift camp for undocumented migrants near the port of Calais, known colloquially as "the jungle," and rounded up almost 300 Afghans, Pakistanis, and others who had hoped to cross the English Channel into Great Britain.