2024-07-21 05:46:25
NGOs: The authorities want a sterile City of Light without beggars, drugs and paid love
The Olympics are knocking on the door and the hosts in Paris are making every effort to perform well in front of the world.
NGOs have revealed that a “social cleansing” is taking place in the French capital, with hundreds of homeless people being evicted just before the games.
On Wednesday, French police broke up two migrant camps in the northern suburbs. Right there, in Saint-Denis, is the Olympic village, and the Stade de France is very close by.
According to the humanitarian organization “Doctors of the World”, whose headquarters is in Saint-Denis, at least 230 foreigners have been expelled, the majority of them migrants.
“Doctors of the World” emphasize that such actions have become more frequent recently. The French authorities deny that the activity of the security forces is related to the Olympics, other NGOs explain that recently it is much easier for migrants to find refuge away from the capital, writes Inside the Games.
“They really do a massive social purge right before the games. Before, the conditions for the reception of foreigners were very strict, but now the situation has worsened and the authorities are taking temporary decisions to make sure that the streets of Paris will be clean”, commented Paul Allozzi from “Doctors of the World”.
By all accounts, Wednesday’s police action appears to have been coordinated with similar ones in other northern districts of Paris. In general, the population in these suburbs is mostly migrants. In November 2015, the attacks that killed around 130 people took place in Saint-Denis and in Paris.
Islamists believed by the French interior ministry to be living and organizing in the northern suburbs claimed responsibility.
Reports of the police actions mentioned that evicted migrants and homeless people were given two options – to move outside Paris or be bussed to Besançon, a five-hour drive away.
According to an AFP reporter, some of the foreigners accepted the “offer”, while others left Saint-Denis on foot, taking their sleeping bags and other personal belongings with them.
One of the evicted is 27-year-old Hasem from Sudan, who did not get on the bus with the explanation that “in two weeks they will evict us from the new place.”
“Why are they moving us? I haven’t hurt anyone and I haven’t caused any trouble. I just want to be in one place all the time”, commented Hasem.
To prevent the possible return of the expelled, the French authorities are taking additional measures.
“Just a few days before the passing of the Olympic flame, the administration placed concrete blocks along the Canal Saint-Denis to prevent migrants from settling there after being removed from their previous ‘residence.’ This is social cleansing and abuse of the most vulnerable social groups. This is the famous social legacy of the games”, wrote in the special report Le revers de la medaille (“The reverse side of the medal”) and in other posts on social networks. Videos of the police actions are accompanied by the motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” of the French Republic.
“The other side of the coin” unites 80 non-governmental organizations.
According to the mentioned report, the result of such public actions is “harassment, expulsion, hiding from the eyes of people whom the public authorities define as undesirable, near the places where competitions of the Olympic Games are held. This summer, Paris and the region will have the opportunity to present themselves the way they want: as a sterile City of Light. With almost invisible misery, without showing details of life, “clean” neighborhoods and parks, without beggars, drug use and paid love”.