The London Olympics are not big business for everyone -- sex workers say they are being cleared from the streets around the stadium to make the area more presentable for the Games.
While Britain's limp economy hopes for an Olympic boost, police in Newham, the deprived east London borough that is home to the stadium, have closed some 80 brothels in the 18 months to March, according to a study by a local councillor. They're not wanted there during the Olympic Games. Prostitution is legal in Britain, but keeping a brothel is outlawed, as are other related activities such as curb-crawling. London's Metropolitan Police have denied that the brothel raids were connected to the Olympics, saying they were "in response to community concerns".
But London's mayor Boris Johnson openly supports a crackdown on the sex trade ahead of the Olympics. Scotland Yard said it was unable to specify the number of east London brothels that have been raided and sex workers arrested in the run-up to the Olympics. But charities working with local prostitutes, many of whom are migrants from Brazil and eastern Europe, have reported a spike in the number arrested, on charges ranging from soliciting to drug possession.
Critics say the crackdown does little to stamp out the sex trade -- it simply shifts it around the city, endangering sex workers in the process. Perry said brothel raids have forced more prostitutes to confront the dangers of approaching strangers in cars, while clearing them from familiar areas leaves them disconnected from services like Open Doors.
But not everyone is so unhappy about the crackdown. Brick Lane, the vibrant stretch of curry restaurants that is home to London's Bangladeshi community, lies just four miles seven kilometres from the Olympic Park. In the last few months, Islam has led a successful campaign to force police to keep prostitutes away from the estate, which its overwhelmingly Muslim residents say has been blighted by the sex trade for decades.
