French police evicted migrants from a makeshift camp in Paris a stone’s throw from the Seine on Tuesday. It creates reactions.
Wednesday 24 April at 11:23
The short version
- French police removed migrants from a temporary camp in Paris on Tuesday, sparking reactions
- Several voluntary organizations believe that efforts are being intensified before the Olympics, and that migrants are being sent far from the capital
- The expulsion comes after similar actions in Paris, and similar incidents have occurred before previous Olympics
- Paris police say the operation is about security, especially since the camp was located near schools
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Several voluntary organizations believe that this effort will be intensified before the Olympics. They believe that people are being sent far away from the capital instead of being offered shelter in the Paris region, where many of them have upcoming meetings about their asylum cases.
The reactions came already in March.
More than 70 French charities asked in November 2023 that the capital must not destroy the lives of homeless people as it prepares for the Olympics, RFI reported.
– The social clean-up on the streets of Paris has already begun, said Paul Alauzy, spokesman for the organization “The Back of the Medal”.
Before the sun had risen on Tuesday, an unusually cold April morning in Paris, around 30 teenage boys and young men from West Africa were also woken up by the police with orders to pack their tents and things.
Most were minors and in the process of applying for residence in the country, writes the AP news agency.
– I was already scared, but now I’m even more scared, because I don’t know where to go, says 16-year-old Boubacar Traore.
He has fled Burkina Faso and arrived in France two months ago.
Tuesday’s incident comes just days after police evicted hundreds of people from a derelict warehouse in Paris. Such evictions happen every spring in the French capital after winter has kicked off.
– The authorities want to have a clean Olympics. They don’t want the tourists to see Paris as a city full of migrants and asylum seekers, says Elias Hufganel.
He is a volunteer in a group that helps refugees and immigrants.
The Paris police stated that the operation was about security, especially because the tent camp was located near schools.
Traore was among those who turned down an offer to go to Besancon, 400 kilometers away from Paris, and stay there for three weeks. It is because he has an agreement on a residence permit in the capital shortly.
Host nations moving homeless people before the Olympics is not a new phenomenon. Before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, an unknown number of beggars, street vendors and homeless people were moved from the streets. At the time, reports said they were moved back to their previous places of residence afterwards.
Brazilian rights groups also reported that homeless people were moved from tourist areas in the middle of the night during the 2016 Summer Games in Rio.
The Olympics start on 26 July and last until 11 August.
