Paris, France (AFP) — A group of charities claimed Wednesday that French police were cracking down on Paris sex workers ahead of the Olympics.

A report issued by 17 non-government organisations who work with prostitutes said that they “shared the same conclusion as to the increased repression and sometimes changes in police practices.

“The approach that we characterise as ‘repression first’ has obvious consequences on the security and health of sex workers,” it said.

Charities working in two hot spots — the Boulogne and Vincennes woods to the west and east of Paris — had noted “increased police patrols ahead of the Games with heavy-handed identity controls on women working in the sex industry”.

They urged authorities to focus their energies instead on the “criminal organisations which rob, rape and assault them”.

A change in the law in France in 2016 criminalised the act of paying for sex acts, rather than offering or performing them.

French authorities fear an increase in prostitution during the Olympic and Paralympic Games which begin on July 26 — something contested by the charities.

“Contrary to some presumptions, sex workers are not in the process of arriving in large numbers in Paris where the cost of accommodation is constantly increasing ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics: they are being pushed to go to work in other towns,” the charities said.

Other charities have denounced efforts by the French authorities to move migrants and the homeless out of the capital ahead of the Games, which are expected to draw millions of overseas visitors.