Paris to remove homeless from Olympic venues | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

PARIS — French authorities have been clearing migrant and homeless camps for months ahead of the 2024 Olympics, a significant moment for President Emmanuel Macron at a time of political turmoil. The latest wave of migrants, mostly from African countries, and homeless people headed to the city’s outskirts on buses paid for by the French government and into temporary accommodation until at least the end of the global sporting event.

While some street dwellers were happy to have a roof over their heads for the night, few knew what awaited them when the eyes of the world turned away from Paris.

Authorities have faced heavy criticism for shuttling migrant camps from the city center, where the Olympics were being held, to the outskirts of Paris or other areas. Activist and migrant groups have called the practice — long used in other Olympic host cities, such as Rio de Janeiro in 2016 — a form of “social cleansing.”

“They want to clear the city for the Olympics, for tourists,” said Nathan Lequeux, an organizer with the activist group Utopia 56. “As the treatment of migrants becomes more and more horrible and infamous, people are being forced off the streets. … Since the Olympics, this aggression, this hunting policy, has become more visible.”

Christophe Noël Du Payrat, chief of staff of the Île-de-France regional government surrounding Paris, vehemently denied the accusations and said the government had been relocating migrants from the city for years.

“We are taking care of them,” he said. “We don’t understand the criticism because we are very determined to provide these people with places.”

He spoke as dozens of police surrounded migrants, preventing them from walking on the streets and putting up caution tape. Asked why there were so many armed police in the group, which was mostly made up of families, Noël Du Payrat said it was to maintain “peace and tranquility”.

The buses arrived Thursday after three days of protests by hundreds of migrants and other homeless people, like Nikki, who slept outside a local government office as athletes and tourists flocked to Paris, who protested authorities breaking up homeless camps and demanded better access to temporary housing.

Among them was Natacha Louise Gbetie, a 36-year-old migrant from Burkina Faso, and her 1-year-old son, whom she carried on her back. Gbetie, who used to work as an accountant in her home country, emigrated with her family to the southern French city of Montpellier five years ago.

Many of the families resettled by the French authorities are, like the Gbeties, from African countries that were once colonized by the French, including Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

After the violence, she moved to Paris. She managed to make ends meet by working as a nanny and sleeping in social housing. That ended in the run-up to the Olympics, when access to social housing was restricted and hostel prices skyrocketed. She said most employers in France would not hire her because she was an illegal immigrant, and she felt rejected as an anti-immigration far-right party gained more power in France.

“I think France is saturated. They are fed up with migrants, they want us to leave their country,” Gbetie said.

The protest group agreed that families would hop on buses to provinces near Paris, and families would stay together in shelters.

Despite the agreement, protest leaders expressed concerns the decision would lead to migrants being isolated and said it was still unclear what would happen to the city’s homeless.

Others, like Gbetie, worried about the future of their 1-year-old son, Richard. Although he was born in France, he was one of the forgotten ones, Gbetie said.

“We have children who are French,” she said. “They will be the future engineers and directors of this country. Think of them first, and for now forget about the Olympics.”

At the Place de la République in central Paris, a popular protest square, they tried to encourage people to do just that on the eve of the grand opening ceremony on the Seine.

Several associations gathered for a so-called “Opening Counter-Ceremony,” giving speeches about the cost of the Games. They said the authorities were using them as a pretext to cleanse society by removing migrants and homeless people from the streets to preserve the city’s postcard image.

“Even in recent weeks, there was a passage under the metro line where people were sleeping, and they put up a cement wall to stop people from coming back,” said Paul Alauzy, spokesman for the Revers de la Médaille (other side of the coin) group. “In Aubervilliers, there is a quay where they put concrete blocks with spikes.”

A giant banner reading “JO de l’exclusion, 12,500 personnes éxpulsées” (Exclusion Games, 12,500 displaced persons) was hung on an iconic statue in the square.

“Shame, shame, shame,” the crowd of about 200 people chanted as they set off smoke canisters in the colours of the Olympic rings.

Various banners were placed around the square.

One read, “La France, championne du mal-logement” (France, the champion of bad housing). Another read, “L’heure est grave. Pas de logements, pas de Jo” (The situation is serious. No housing, no games). Another called for the Olympic flame to be extinguished, and one of the flags showed French President Emmanuel Macron with his hands through the Olympic rings, as if he were handcuffed.

Noah Fargeon, a spokesman for Saccage 2024 — a group that has long campaigned against the Games — called the Paris Olympics “a monstrous waste of public funds,” saying the image painted was just a facade.

“Paris is turning into a Disneyland for tourists, an LVMH (Louis Vuitton) painting,” Fargeon said. “But on the other hand, those who actually live in the city are being relocated. Instead of spending money to help people find accommodation, it is being spent on repressing them.”

The games have also drawn criticism, with Parisians complaining about everything from high public transport fares to government spending to clean up the Seine to allow swimming instead of investing in a social safety net.

Information for this article was provided by Jerome Pugmire of the Associated Press.