With the start of the Paris Olympics just two weeks away, a massive effort is underway to clear the city of homeless migrants, who will either be deported or bused to other French cities.
President Emmanuel Macron has promised to showcase the best of France during the Olympics – but the Olympic Village is located in one of Paris’ poorest suburbs, where thousands are believed to be living in street camps, shelters or abandoned buildings.
Last year, the city evicted some 5,000 people – mostly men with immigrant backgrounds – and encouraged them to move to cities like Lyon or Marseille instead.
– We were expelled because of the Olympic Games, says Mohamed Ibrahim from Chad, who has been living without a permit in an abandoned cement factory near the Olympic village.
– They give you a random ticket. If it’s a ticket to Orléans, you go to Orléans, says a man from the Central African Republic.
Shifting the problems
Immigration is a very sensitive issue in France, but it is clear that there is no room in shelters and other accommodations for the 100,000 or so homeless people living in the capital – a group that continues to grow. Instead, 10 large temporary shelters have been set up around the country.
While the government denies that it is busing migrants away for the Olympics, officials testify that they are working to “identify people on the street in places near Olympic venues” and relocate them before the games begin.
Although some will be deported because they are in France illegally or do not qualify for asylum, many will remain in the country. According to the New York Times, it is common for them to be evicted again and left homeless after being bussed to other French cities – citing a lack of housing.
“They lied to us”
– There’s no money to find places for the homeless in Marseille, but there is money to bring homeless people from Paris? asks Audrey Garino, deputy mayor of Marseille.
Several migrants testified how they were given bus tickets and told to go from Paris to Orleans, but when they arrived they were told that no local shelter could take them.
– We arrived and there was nothing. They lied to get us on the bus, said Ahmed.
It should be noted that the Olympics will take place mainly in the Seine-Saint-Denis area – one of the most multiethnic areas in the country, where about one in three residents are migrants. In recent years, the French government has spent billions of euros to regenerate and develop the area.
