French authorities accused of “social cleansing” as Olympics approach
NGOs have blasted French authorities for accelerating “social cleansing” after hundreds of squatters were evicted ahead of the Olympics.
French police broke up two migrant camps in the north of Paris on Wednesday in what appears to be a concentrated effort in the build-up to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
According to the humanitarian aid organisation Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), which is headquartered in the Saint-Denis northern suburbs of Paris, over 230 people were evicted on Wednesday mostly consisting of migrants.
The organization reported that actions of this kind have been taking place at an accelerated rate lately, and while French authorities rejected it having any association with the Olympics, NGOs have highlighted that it has recently become much easier for migrants to access shelters far from the heart of the capital.
“They’ve really accomplished a massive social cleansing just before the Olympics start,” said Medecins du Monde representative, Paul Alauzy. “Previously there were drastic conditions for admission but now, just before the Games, everybody can go. They’re offering temporary solutions to ensure the streets of Paris are cleared.”
Paris is being “cleansed” of migrants and homeless people ahead of the Olympics.
Thousands are being forcibly removed and placed outside the city.
Liberty Equality and Fraternity pic.twitter.com/0UBSrdufD3
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) July 18, 2024
Wednesday’s evictions are on the back of police clearing around 250 people from another squat along Ourcq canal in northeastern Paris on Tuesday.
According to reports, authorities told those evicted that they could either be taken to a shelter situated on the outskirts of Paris or take a 5-hour coach journey to Besancon in eastern France.
While many accepted the offer of a shelter further away, other expelled migrants left on foot carrying sleeping bags and belongings on their person reported an AFP journalist.
The 27-year-old Hassem from Sudan was one evicted migrant who didn’t get on the bus to the shelter stating that inevitably “in two weeks they’ll throw us back out on the streets”.
“Why are we being removed?” he asked. “I haven’t hurt anyone, I haven’t caused any problems. I just need a stable place to stay.”
In some cases, measures are being made to ensure that squatters can’t return to the spots they previously occupied, including installing concrete blocks under bridges.
🧹 le fameux héritage social inédit des #JO
@Paris2024👉🏼 #NettoyageSocial et maltraitance pour les plus précaires par @Prefet75_IDF
@prefpolice
@Paris
https://t.co/Vx18rJtvcc— le revers de la médaille (@reversmedaille) July 18, 2024
80 charities recently worked together on an inter-association report titled Revers de la Medaille in which French authorities were following a typical social clean-up movement which has often been accelerated before the Olympic Games.
The report said that the familiar “public action logics” of this kind cause “harassment, expulsion and invisibilisation of populations categorised by the public authorities as undesirable from the venues where the Olympic Games will be held”.
“This summer, Paris and its region will be able to present themselves in a way that authorities see as favourable: a sterile ‘City of Light’ read the report. “With its misery almost invisible, without significant informal areas of life, ‘clean’ neighbourhoods and woods, without beggars, drug use or sex work”.