>> hello and welcome to brussels. welcome to "european journal." here's what's coming up in today's show -- live in the shadows. and why france wanted tighten prostitution laws. giants in the oceans -- why whales are not leaving for the south. beating the economic crisis in -- meet a young man fro ireland. prostuti ithe oldes trade in the world, they say, and in some european countries, it is

an entirely legal profession. in germany, for instance, prostitutes are open to health insurance and women's rights. in sweden, you have to pay a fine if you are caught paying for sexual services. france wants to introduce similar restrictions. the french are now debating if they need to redefine their attitudes towards the sex business. >> some say paris is the city of love. it is certainly a place where love is big business. sean worked for eight years as a call girl. she is a former saleswoman, and she discovered the profession by chance. >> i was working a boutique. one day a man came in. he became my lover. because i speak several languages, he paid for me to take expensive trips to london and geneva.

at anvent one eveni, inhat other girls working as escorts. they told me how to find more clients. so i gave up my day job. >> she spent lots of times in luxury hotels. her clients included businessmen, lawyers, and prominent public figures. she will not say anymore. then frequently but prostitutes like her, but with the utmost diretion -- men freentl booked prostitutes like her but with the utmost discretion. >> i had to know what was on at the theaters and be able to talk about politics. we need good general knowledge. first, you go out to eat. and then comes this magic moment, and things go further. back then, i really enjoyed

these encounters. >> she says the fun stopped when the sarkozy government prohibited all types of advertisg for prostitution. business moved to the internet, where prostitution rings operate illegally. that meant that she had to find a pen. from then on, she was forced to accept the clients that he chose. she could no longer set limits. >> customer behavior changed completely. they became very rough and wanted to get down to business right away. they had no respect for us anymore. >> the violence of the french sex trade was made public by the scandal surrounding the former head of the international monetary fund. after facing charges in court for sexually assaulting a hotel

maid in new york, there were accusations of his involvement in a prostitution ring in france. prosecutors are investigating. he is refusing to comment on the allegations. he says he did not know the women were prostitutes. the french public, though, finds that hard to believe. a kiss and tell novel written by a former lover is a best seller. a highly placed source in paris says the sexual escapades of french politicians are tolerated, but only to a certain point. >> what shocked the french is that he apparently forced women to do things that they did not want to do. if it was an affair in new rk or in the carleton. >> sex workers say making the business illegal has led to an increase in brutality.

bordellos are prohibited, and selling sex on the street is frowned upon. they say that keeps the violence under cover. sean and sought help only after her pimp beat her so badly that she had to be hospitalized. she went to this groupnaris, and her pimp ended up in court. >> this helps the women to recover. it is important that they are recognized as victims of a crime. frequently, they have been so humiliated that they have lost all self-esteem and believe they have no rights at all. >> in the case of dominique strauss-kahn, the advocacy group is a co-plaintiff. >> this really has us in the spotlight, but there are witnesses and there is evidence. it is up to the judge is now.

i am not worried. if he did something wrong, then he has got to pay the price. >> public prosecutors in paris often demand jail terms of several years in these kinds of cases, but the judges mostly issues suspended sentences. unless the french government puts a stop to illegal prostitution rings, prostitutes will need better protection. until now, women have worked illegally, making them ineligible for welfare benefits. >> in france, we simply pretend prostitution does not exist, but we have not really band it because we know that there are prostitutes in every society. unlike germany, the netherlands, or spain, we have not set up a legal framework to protect sex workers. >> shawna has given evidence in

court about her clients, but s is afraito tl all due to fear of reprisals. she says she wants to get out of the sex trade, and she is looking for another job, far from the glitz and glamour of luxury hotels. >> global warming? are you joking? faced with an exceptionally long and cold winter this year, some find it hard to believe that global warming is actually happening, but experts say quite to the contrary, there is no better proof of the change in climate and extreme weather conditions like the current long-lasting winter. climate change, scientists s, is ao hang effects high up in the doorway. when marta looks through her telescope perch, she immediately knows if this will be a good day for her team of whale researchers. >> the possibility to study

whales in the mentor when there is no activity. >> she is a spanish whale researcher. seven years ago, she came here a gro of islands 300 kilometers north of the arctic circle. >> there are a lot of them. >> i think we should go right now. >> the captain of the trawler takes them out. in the summer, he earns his living taking tourists out on will safaris. >> we have to approach the wales very carefully and slowdown in plenty of time to avoid otherwise, they just died under and disappear.

>> whales come here every summer, but for the last three years, they have appeared off the coast every winter, too. this is the mating season. it is a riddle the biologists tried to solve. within 20 minutes, the ship encounters its first humpback whales. three whales circled the vote on afraid, even though the motors are allowed. >> sometimes, they may approach the boat and check out what is going on and sometimes they move a little bit away. these animals are very highly developed. >> the individual whales can be identified by the appearance of their backs and large tail flukes.

that is why the researchers take as many photos as possible. today, they will take more than 500. >> if we compare this information with information from other researchers in other parts of the world, we can understand, for example, the migration. we kw that some have been seen in norway and in the caribbean as well. >> humpback whales can grow up to 15 meters long. for hundreds of years, they were hunted for meat and oil. they have been a protected species since 1956. now, they have reappeared along the coast. this really is a good day for a passionate whale researcher. >> look. >> martha and her colleagues call their shared office the science cave.

this is where they evaluate their photos every evening. they compare, catalog, and sometimes recognize old acquaintances, wilson have come before -- whales who have come before. >> he usually comes each summer and stays for the whole period. he is one of o best kwn individuals. you can see the unique pattern of the fluke on these animals. if you notice, it is exactly the same. >> there are still large gaps in our knowledge of these mammals and their journeys through the oceans, despite all the photos. the next morning, the researchers cite orcas, commonly known as killer whales. they are in the dolphin family. about 15 of them are swimming in the fjord.

five years ago, that would have been unheard of, but today, it is almostoutine. still, the captain is excited. >> note tour is like any other. it is always fascinating for us because we simply do not know what kind of wales we will encounter -- what kind of whales we will encounter. >> march that is still looking for an explanation of why they are showing up in the winter -- marta is still looking for an explanation. is it a good sign or a bad one? she suspect ihas to do with higher temperatures in the sea and the recovery of fish stocks. >> some of these whales should be migrating farther south to reach the breeding grounds. one of the hypotheses we have is that the animals that are staying here for much longer

than they should is because they do not have access to reproduction. >> that would mean the waters off the village are kind of hang out for bachelor whales, but there is still not enough data to back up any hypotheses. the trawler returns with 22 tons of cod. a single codfish ways of to 20 kilos. thomas and his colleagues are not worried about the whales feeding here in the winter now as well. there seems to be enough for everyone. >> they eat mostly hring, and theepshem pretty busy. sometimes they even come close to our boats, but otherwise, we do not notice them. they do not affect our catch. >> on this trip, marta and her

fellow researchers are watching mostly humpbacks and orcas. they go hunting for herring in the same place at the same time, even though they normally compete for prey. packs of killer whales are even known to attack the much larger humpbacks. the captain hopes the marine mammals will continue coming here in the winter. may be then we could take tourists on spectacular will watching tourists even in the colder months. and that ioxicts and dru have had magic appeal on mankind for millennia. the first beer brewers lived around 5000 years ago. alcohol in particular is today a

socially accepted intoxicant in western societies, but when it comes to other kinds of hard drugs, consumers face tough penalties. however, actually banning a drug can take a long time. there is a legal loophole drug dealers in britain are using to do brisk business. >> this is where drug dealers of the interneera work. any caf with online access. alex specializes in recreational drugs that have not been banned. he has his own website to market them with snappy sounding names. the site even accepts credit cards. alex delivers his drugs by regular mail, courier, and sometimes in person. his clientele ranges from students to businessmen and even politicians, but what about the

risks for consumers? >> they are very safe to consume, again, because they were created in a controlled laboratory. it is not being mixed with other products that can create irreversible damage. >> no damage? the evidence from both online videos and statistics suggests otherwise. what makes the drug so zardous ithe unpredictable effect. two weeks ago, this design student who wishes to remain anonymous tried out her first legal high. it was called red dragon, a cannabis substitute. after smoking it, she first felt drunk, but then she vomited uncontrollably and collapse. her nightmare trip ended in the hospital. >> i have a very bad memory of what i was saying and what was going on.

i also had slight difficulty breathing as well. i also had this overwhelming urge to just lie back and sleep, even though i was sick, which obviously is very dangerous. >> in britain alone, there are now some 80 websites like this to choose from. consumers are generally unaware of what the synthetic drugs made in china actually contained. one in two young people in britain is estimated to have tried them at least once. the problem for the authorities is that the makers e comg u with nrugsaste than they can be banned. 43 deaths were linked to now- banned legal highs in 2010, eight times as many as in the previous year. the club drug clinic in chelsea helps people who have developed symptoms such as depression and panic attacks.

staff here have identified around 70 new substances on the market. they say consumers are playing russian roulette with their lives. >> what is interesting is th perceptionmong urs i that because it is legal it must be safe, and i think we really need to challenge that. with many of these new legal drugs that are available online, we really do not know what the risks are. >> club drugs could also trigger serious illnesses year later like premature dementia or even cancer, but consumers are only interested in the immediate effects. >> people start using club drugs to go out and have fun. they go out to party. they go out dancing all night, and that is how people generally start usi them. ov time, what happens is that drug use escalates, and it goes from something that is fun on the weekend and starts spreading out into the weekday, and then they are using on their lunch hour at work, and then things really start going wrong.

>> demand for legal highs is rapidly increasing in london, as is the number of consumers who end up in the hospital, especially on weekends. dealers like alex insist their drugs are harmless. most of the drugs come with a disclaimer. >> immigration from europe is nothing new. there was a big exodus during the great famine some 160 years ago, especially from ireland. the most popular destination was the u.s. once again, young europeans are heading for distant shores, looking for better prospects abroad as the current economic crisis has robbed them of economic opportunities at home. iland, around 200 mostly young people left their country every day last year on average. although there are some signs of

economic recovery, for most, it is too slow. to think that not even 10 years ago, people were flocking to ireland because of its booming economy. >> sean and his father have always been close, but he is preparing to leave their home village and the country. >>addy has decided not to see his son off at the airport. he's leaving this remote western edge of ireland for big city life on the atlantic. to boston, a traditional magnet for irish immigrants. he is starting to miss home even before he has left. >> i love it, and i love living there. my friends and familof there,

and they play football and soccer, but you cannot save money, and even if you do get ahead of yourself, something happens to the car or something just has to be done there. there is always something that you just cannot get that little bit ahead. then he trained as a plumber and weather -- welder but was unable to find a permanent job. instead, he has been working on his father's small farm and doing odd jobs. ofn, he is lt to me en et on welfare checks. he will not be first in his family to immigrate. a number of his relatives already live in boston. his own parents spent 20 years there but never forgot where home was. >> where you are born, there is something in the back of your mind that you want to come back.

everybody wants to come back, but half of them never make it. he will no doubt mrs. mom's freshly baked bread. the family has gathered the day before his departu. he is reluctant to leave, but like many other young men, he is frustrated by a lack of prospects in ireland despite his qualifications. last year alone, almost 90,000 left the country. >> [inaudible] >> he also pops over to the neighboring village to say goodbye to some friends and to get a hair cut. >> just trying to look nice for all the yankee girls when i get over there.

>> he is glad his friend martin will also be moving to boston soon. he is a trained bricklayer and like was mostly unemployed. lisa has known the two of them since school da. she is sad to see so manyoung pele leaving ireland. >> 7 out of 10 have gone. they have had their second or third years in australia are ireland. they come home christmas every second year bause they cannot afford to come home any other time. >> a number of homes are already vacant. people numbers at the primary school are falling due to the low birthrate. sean spends his last evening in one of the village's last remaining pubs. has talked often aut the proprietor -- with the proprietor about his plans to immigrate. he's a local history buff and says 10,000 people left for the u.s. alone over the past 100 years, but he says the current wave of immigration seems bigger than any before.

>> they can come back whenever they please, but 15 years before you are on kind of an even keel again, there is a big hole in the ship, and it will take a long time to bail it out. >> irend is still suggling toecover from recession, and there's little sign of a resurgent celts a tiger. a former boss has had to massively downsize operations. >> i used to have 14 staff. now i just have two. i do not even have enough work for them. only for myself, really. >> he is planning to be gone for 10 years. he has packed modestly. a few pairs of pants a soccer jerseys, but with no shortage of optimism.

>> hopefully, i will be working on monday. >> they are confident their only son will make it in boston. he hopes to earn over $2,000 a week. his plans to wire some of the money back home are little consolation for his family. of course they hope he will return at some point in the future to the place where the heart is -- home. and that is all we have time for on today's "european journal quarter man from brussels. thanks very much for watching. until next time, auf wiedersehen

and bye for now. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--