2023-10-25 07:22:46
Time.news – A new complaint from ‘sans papier’ workers exploited in the construction of plants and a controversial tower in Tahiti for the potential damage to marine biodiversity make Paris 2024 the Olympics of repeated scandals. According to the investigative cell of the Radio France broadcaster, 14 immigrant workers have turned to justice, reporting their employers for lack of safety on construction sites, difficult working conditions, often without contracts, low wages and unpaid contributions.
After the nine companies involved in a similar scandal last June, 11 others are now at the center of a new case of widespread abuse in the construction sector, which emerged during inspections by the labor inspectorate. A real system that involves several subcontractor companies based at the same address, not far from the Olympic facilities under construction between Paris, Sarcelles and Saint-Denis.
The network identified by Radio France mainly includes managers of Turkish nationality, French people settled in Turkey and members of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria. Those born in Turkey all come from the same town: Yaprakli, 8 thousand inhabitants, in the province of Cankiri. The official Turkish agency Anadolu dedicated an article to French Turks who return to their homeland, almost all of whom work in construction and are politically “very right-wing”.
According to the French media, there are also people of Pakistani and Portuguese origin who gravitate around these fictitious offices of subcontracted companies. Solideo, the public body responsible for overseeing the 68 Olympic projects, including the athletes’ village and the Marville swimming pool, has identified “a hundred people in illegal employment situations“, underlining that he had never seen “such a high level of requests: the construction sector is so corrupt that our supervisory system will always chase reality”.
Large construction companies could be involved, directly or indirectly, in these illicit acts, but investigations are continuing. The case has been entrusted to the Bobigny prosecutor’s office which will investigate the dossier of clandestine work and the hiring of employees in an irregular situation. The powerful CGT union filed a complaint and took a civil action.
The ‘Tahiti’ question
Tens of thousands of kilometers away, in paradisiacal Tahiti, at the center of criticism and concern from residents and environmentalists is the project to build an aluminum tower in the middle of the lagoon to allow judges to follow surfing competitions . The cost of the construction site, 4.4 million euros, is estimated as too high and opponents fear a “catastrophe” for fauna, flora and corals.
The tower of discord, as it has been nicknamed, 14 meters high, will include three floors, an air-conditioned technical room for internet servers powered by an underwater cable and bathrooms with an evacuation system connected to a pipe. Peaceful marches took place to protest its construction near the village of Teahupo’o, where residents, NGOs and environmentalists warn that coral risks breaking from the machinery used to erect the building, as well as collateral damage to the seabed and harmful interference with the biodiversity of the site.
In a video posted on social media, local surfer Matahi Drollet explains in particular that for the World Surf League (WSL) event, organized every year in Teahupo’o, a wooden tower is installed, dismantled once the test is finished, so the same could also be used for the surfing competition of Paris 2024.
An online petition was launched against the new tower which in just a few days has already collected more than 80 thousand signatures. The organizing committee justifies this project by citing safety reasons, since the 13.50 meter wooden tower is no longer up to standard. The Polynesian government, the main contractor of the project, commissioned a design office specialized in the marine environment and the planned works must comply with rigorous environmental specifications.
The French Olympic canoeing legend, Tony Estanguet, assured the Tahitians, regarding Teahupo’o, that Paris 2024 does not want to “distort this place which must remain as close as possible to what it once was”. The same president of French Polynesia, Moetai Brothersontried to reassure local residents, but failed to convince them.
“We don’t say no to the Olympics, but we say no to the aluminum tower. The government has said that it is not up to Teahupo’o to adapt to the Olympics but the Olympics to adapt to Teahupo’o. We expect that their word will be kept,” the local surfer pointed out.
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