Olympism has a long list of values, among which friendship, respect, solidarity and humanism stand out. Yet with just a few weeks to go before the start of the Paris Olympic event, its latest edition is being overshadowed by a controversy that has little or nothing to do with these qualities. The reason: in the past few months, there have been voices accusing the French authorities of having removed thousands of homeless people from the city of lights so as not to completely ‘black out’ the great spectacle of the Olympics. “They don’t want the outcasts to be visible on camera.”

There are already those who talk about a “social cleansing” practice.

5,000 people evacuated.The shape slides New York TimesA recent report, under the rather telling headline – ‘France expels homeless migrants from Paris ahead of Olympic Games’ – analyses what is happening in the French capital on the eve of the major sporting event.

It cites as its source a senior federal official in Paris, who estimated that last year police and courts evicted around 5,000 people, mostly single men. The number is high but, according to the newspaper, represents a small fraction of the homeless people living in and around Paris.

‘Social cleansing’. The statement was made in this case by Paul Alauzy of Doctors of the World and its spokesman, the France24 network, also echoed the voices criticizing the attitude of the French authorities. “There are several lines of evidence that allow the use of the term ‘social cleansing'”, says Alauzy, spokesman for the group ‘Le Revers de la médaille’, created to denounce the policy implemented in Paris in the months before the lighting of the Olympics. torch.

“Evacuation operations are not new, they were not created with the Olympic Games in mind,” admits the activist, appreciating a milestone ahead of the upcoming celebrations of the Olympic Games: “What has changed as we approach is the ‘frequency’ of the evacuation of occupied areas and the systematic deportation of evacuees to another part of the country.”

Not content with mere statements, the group published a report in June summarizing its research over a long period from April 2023 to May 2024, which it said left a clear conclusion: “Multiple indicators show that the Olympic Games (Olympic Games) and Paralympic Games accelerate the dispersal and transfer of vulnerable people.”

Buses with unknown destinationThe modus operandi has been more or less described by national and foreign media, among others: TNYT, GuardianFrance24, L’EquipeSemafor, US Today or Anadolu Agency agency. The New York newspaper mentions in its research report that while authorities put homeless immigrants on buses with the promise of accommodation, the reality is very different: At least some of them become homeless again, are left outside Paris, and even face the risk of deportation.

Authorities would encourage them to move to other parts of France, such as Marseille or Lyon, away from the Olympic Village, which is being built in one of the capital’s poorer suburbs. “They give you a random ticket. If it’s for Orleans, you go to Orleans,” says Oumar Alamin from the Central African Republic. TNYT He talks about homeless people who unknowingly join programs to assess whether they can apply for asylum, temporary shelters, deportation orders, and migrants who end up living on the streets again despite taking the bus.

More pieces to the puzzle. Facts are important, but so is context. For example, Seine-Saint-Denis, a key part of the Paris Olympic Games and where the Government has invested millions, is also a region with a strong immigrant population. “We are moving people around, making them invisible, to get a postcard city,” Antoine de Clerck, also a member of the ‘Revers de la médaille’, ironically told France24. “What we see on the field reflects what happened in previous Olympic Games abroad: the most marginalised people do not want to be seen by cameras or tourists.”

“It has nothing to do with that”. The authorities see the situation differently. Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra insisted in March that the evictions were not related to the Olympic event. “It has nothing to do with the Olympic Games, there is no social cleansing,” she stressed. “This emergency admission policy aims to distribute the burden throughout the region… These types of operations are carried out regularly, they are not dictated by the Olympic and Paralympic agenda.” The French government stresses that it is a voluntary program aimed at alleviating the housing shortage experienced by Paris.

“Expulsions to beautify”Despite their messages, the authorities have failed to dispel any shadow of doubt. And not just among the press. In January, the main state body responsible for ensuring human rights assured that it would investigate allegations of displacement of homeless people in the run-up to the Games and whether efforts were being made to “make invisible” parts of the population.

According to France24, even Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to asylum, reminded that “expulsions to beautify Paris” would not be far from those carried out in countries such as China or India on the eve of major events. “How does France justify this?”

Evacuation of occupied buildingsOne of the most impactful decisions by French authorities was the evacuation in mid-April of France’s largest shanty town, in a southern suburb of the capital. The complex, which was built in Vitry-sur-Seine and is the abandoned headquarters of a bus company, is estimated to be home to as many as 450 people, including refugees with proper documentation, schoolchildren who have been living there because they can’t find employment and other accommodation they can afford.

Guardian Once they leave the block, he claims, the squatters are encouraged to take buses and move to other parts of the country, such as Orleans or Bordeaux. But the building in Vitry-sur-Seine is not the first to be “emptied” by the authorities. A similar incident occurred months ago at another development in Ile-Saint-Denis, near the Olympic Village, and last summer in Thiais.

The France24 network reveals that in three years the number of forced eviction orders issued by municipal and regional authorities in the Paris region has increased exponentially: from 15 between 2021 and 22, to almost fifty between May 2023 and last April. . Critical voices such as ‘Collectif accès au droit’ insist on the overlap between the “acceleration” of evictions and temporary accommodation options and the proximity of the Olympic Games.

Images | Eric Salard (Flickr), David Dennis (Flickr) and Dominique Bernardini (Flickr)

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