French MPs have voted in favor of a law that makes it illegal to pay for sex, replacing rules that penalized sex workers for soliciting.
Clients will have to pay fines of up to €3,750 for buying sexual acts and will have to attend education classes about the conditions faced by prostitutes, the BBC reports.
According to French lawmakers, the law is designed to protect sex workers from human trafficking. One measure will make it easier for foreign prostitutes to get temporary residence permits in France if they agree to quit sex work.
“The most important aspect of this law is to accompany prostitutes, give them identity papers because we know that 85 percent of prostitutes here are victims of trafficking,” Socialist MP and architect of the bill Maud Olivier told the Associated Press news agency.
Some French sex workers protested the new rules, according to French media.
The French law follows a path set by Sweden, the first country to criminalize payment for prostitution rather than sex work itself.