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FM
Former Member

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.

"For the last two years we've seen a real increase in police activityin relation to sex work in the Olympic host boroughs," saidGeorgina Perry, who runs Open Doors, a government project supporting east London prostitutes.

"Some of the women who sell sex have experienced so many brothel closures that they are now working on the street, and that is a much less safe place," she told AFP.

"Street women are experiencing a lot of police requests for them to move on from the area. They're not wanted there during the Olympic Games."

The expected influx of two million visitors for the Olympics has led Prime Minister David Cameron to predict predicted a ÂĢ13 billion ($20.2 billion, 16.3 billion euro) boost for the economy over the next four years.

But the sex trade looks likely to miss out on any benefits, campaigners say.

Prostitution is legal in Britain, but keeping a brothel is outlawed, as are other related activities such as curb-crawling................................

What is curb crawling?  Doggie on the curb? 

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