Authorities Clearing Paris of Homeless Before the Olympics

Around 500 migrants and the poor have been relocated from France’s money capital to rural areas and small towns ahead of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics in July and August. In an effort to” clean the board” in the money before the big global event, this behavior is perceived by both charitable activists and some provincial government as an effort to conceal the existence of the homeless problem in preparing for the Olympic Games.
Numerous regional mayors in various cities have expressed concern about the recent, unanticipated influx of strange people into their communities. Up to 500 homeless migrants were dumped on the city without its prior knowledge, according to local authorities in Orleans, a city in central France with a population of about 100 000. The new arrivals are initially given three weeks of lodging in a hotel that the state has paid for, but they are then left to take care of themselves. The deputy mayor of Strasbourg, also reported facing similar issues, describing the situation as’ hazy’.
Some human rights activists have also alleged that the government initiated the effort to improve the appearance of the French capital in connection with the upcoming Summer Olympics. According to Paul Alauzy of the non-governmental organization Medecins du Monde, if the goal is to merely cover up poverty and the homelessness and build a facade in order to prepare for the Olympics, it is ineffectively addressing the humanitarian concerns.
The state’s regional security office earlier this week stated that the recent moves were the result of the state’s regional security office’s decision to close all of its emergency lodging options. They emphasized that this activity had no connection to the Olympics.
France received 167, 000 asylum requests in 2023, the second- highest number in the EU, with migrants mostly from Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Makeshift camps are frequently established around the capital and are frequently raided and broken up by police because demand for short-term, emergency accommodation far exceeds supply.
In 2023, France witnessed the second- highest asylum application numbers in the European Union, recording a total of 167, 000 requests. The majority of these requests were submitted by illegal immigrants from Middle Eastern, South Asia, and Africa. In the vicinity of the capital city frequently appear impromptu camps and are occasionally subject to police dispersal due to a significant shortage of short-term emergency housing.
France would not be the first Olympic host country to reportedly use these kinds of tactics. In 2008, Beijing’s Olympics clean- up saw hundreds of beggars and homeless people ousted from the streets, with many shipped back to their home regions. When Brazil hosted the 2016 Games, the homeless people of Rio de Janeiro were forced to leave their tourist destinations.
Not the first city hosting the Olympic Games to allegedly employ these tactics is France. A significant number of beggars and homeless people were taken from the streets during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with many returning to their respective home regions. Similar to how the homeless in Rio de Janeiro felt when Brazil hosted the 2016 Games were forced to leave their homes. Back in 1980 Soviet authorities cleansed Moscow of all “anti- social” and “undesirable” people ahead of 1980 Moscow Olympics that were eventually boycotted by the Free World over USSR’s aggression in Afghanistan. Authorities Clearing Paris of Homeless Before the Olympics SOURCE: eTurboNews | eTN