A Wednesday in February. It is 5:30 p.m., the sun is starting to set at the Plaine des jeux de Gerland. Dozens of young people train on the grounds of this sports complex in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon. Athletics, football, rugby or even table tennis clubs… “In total, there are around 1,000 registered children, aged 4 to 18, who come every day of the week, between 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. “, indicates Olivier, father of a young rugby player. Before adding: “And they got used to having to train with prostitutes. »
On the lawn, the man watches the match but also the dozens of cars slowing down near the vans. A few park. “In September, the three streets that encircle the plain were filled with vans. We had counted 150 of them”, specifies this father who launched a petition with hundreds of other parents, exasperated by the situation. There are now about fifty. Since the beginning of winter, they have been alerting the public authorities to the situation, being “very worried about their children”.
The city does not want to “displace the phenomenon”
“The problem is all that this activity induces such as violence, pimps and drugs, exposes the dad. An 11-year-old girl was followed by a client. Children see naked women, men who masturbate. Parents’ cars are being robbed. “The collective asks to” put an immediate and definitive end to these activities “. He claims to have “nothing against these women” but “fears that a tragedy will occur”, underlines Olivier.
“The emergency has been going on for years”, answers Mohamed Chihi, deputy mayor of Lyon, delegate for safety, security and tranquility. He cites the strategy of previous mandates which only “shifted the problem” with “orders prohibiting the parking of prostitute vans”. “We haven’t touched any decree put in place, which means that the whole area is covered except for part of the Pierre de Coubertin alley, but we are not going to continue on this ground, says the deputy. We don’t fight pimping with anti-parking orders. It is not in this way that prostitution will disappear, the proof. »
Police patrols to solve the problem
The elected official recalls that “the patrols of the municipal police are extremely numerous” to “make vehicles leave unauthorized axes” and thinks that it is necessary “to apply the law of 2016 more harshly by verbalizing the customers”, which “only the national police can do”. He develops: “Rather than operate the constraint on the customers, our predecessors circumvented the spirit of the law, which aimed to protect these women, and made weigh the responsibility on these victims of a system. This will not be our case. »
But then, how to protect prostitutes while preserving children? “We can not sweep the problem to put it under other eyes”, excludes the deputy from the outset. With this in mind, the ecological municipality has focused, “since its arrival in activity”, on “securing the premises”. In order to “avoid any situation of cohabitation” and “shelter” the kids, one of the car parks has been condemned. “We want to promote access to the land from the front of the plain”, specifies Mohamed Chihi. Thus, the little sportsmen no longer pass near the vans.
The construction of a low wall and a “robust” fence throughout the complex is also in progress. “It should be finished at the end of the quarter. However, this wall is not a response to the phenomenon of prostitution but a response to intrusions and deterioration, reported by clubs from the start of their mandate, ”insists the elected official.
An “urgent” situation facing the reception of New Zealanders
The situation seems to have calmed down since the beginning of the year. During this February evening, Olivier recognizes “a cleaning” of the streets. “A good fifty trucks are still present on Jean-Bouin”, he shows while a municipal police vehicle checks a car near a van. A few minutes later, a screen-printed “national police” vehicle will ask three white vans to move.
But the concerns of the father of the family remain unresolved. He realized that when Lou sports meetings took place, the Lyon rugby team, the town hall took orders. “Hop! On match nights the vans miraculously disappear before returning the following days, he gets angry. We therefore understand that sporting events come before the safety of our children! »
What then of the Rugby World Cup in a few months and the reception of the All Blacks, the New Zealand team, in Gerland? The security assistant admits that the “situation is urgent”. “The cohabitation between these publics [les prostituées et les joueurs] is not desirable, it would show a deplorable image of France”, recognizes Mohamed Chihi. “We are working on it in collaboration with the State services to initiate the situation, while avoiding pushing the misery elsewhere without ever treating it”, he concludes without providing a concrete answer.