Paris accused of covering up ‘misery’ to ‘beautify’ city ahead of 2024 Olympics

More than 15 million visitors are expected to descend on Paris this northern summer for the event, with many more eyes watching on from across the globe.

A collective of French charities say people experiencing homelessness, living in camps, squats or slums, are sex workers or drug users are being targeted by authorities.

Le Revers de la Médaille (The Other Side of the Medal), which represents more than 80 organisations and associations, released a report on the issue this week, claiming the country was quietly carrying out “social cleansing”.

It explained the controversial act involved “harassing, expelling and invisibilising the populations categorised by the public authorities as undesirable” where the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will be held.

 

In April last year, the city’s largest squat, known as Unibéton, was dismantled.

The report said 500 people were expelled.

“The largest squat in Île-de-France was located on L’Île-Saint-Denis on a site near the future Olympic Athletes’ Village,” the report said, according to an English translation.

“This event then marks the beginning of a year characterised by repeated evictions from informal places of life.”The report said 12,500 people had been moved between April last year and May this year. It added some streets and woods had seen the disappearance of homeless people who have lived there for years.

The big problem, Le Revers de la Médaille says, is that these people are being moved without dignified solutions, so Paris can hide “misery” and be represented in a more favourable light.

The report said other French cities hosting certain events – like Bordeaux and Lille – had not been spared from the social cleansing.

France is not the first Olympics host nation to engage in controversial practices to improve a city’s image ahead of the Games.

Sydney was the host city for the 2000 Summer Olympics. The NSW Government and Sydney City Council created a plan prior to the event to get homeless people off the streets, but a government spokesman denied the scheme was because of the Olympics.

It is not dissimilar to the discourse this year in France.

The Le Revers de la Médaille report took aim at statements by French ministers and police chiefs that the crackdown was not connected with the Olympics.

“This argument was weak before and today it is totally unconvincing,” it said.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal is the United Nation’s special rapporteur (independent expert) on the right to adequate housing.

In April he blasted the evictions on X, formerly Twitter.

“Evictions to beautify Paris ahead of the Olympics is similar to what China, India or many others have done before other mega-events. How is France justifying this?” he wrote.

On Tuesday, in response to the report, he added: “Paris should find better solutions instead of engaging in ‘social cleansing’ – removal of thousands of homeless people. France can and should do better.”

When AFP asked for comment on the latest report, the Paris 2024 organising committee stressed it was not responsible for social policies or policing.

The social affairs ministry said it “took the concerns seriously” and had “regularly consulted” charities.

The cabinet director of the Paris regional prefect, who is responsible for policing and security, defended the policies of the government and suggested the Le Revers de la Médaille collective was unrealistic.

“They want the Olympics to be a magic word that will enable us to resolve the ills of French society,” Christophe Noel du Payrat told AFP.

“But we know that emergency shelters and social housing is under strain in the Paris region.” The head of the Seine-Saint-Denis region, a poverty-wracked northeastern Paris suburb where much of the Olympics will take place, said last week that the Games should draw attention to the capital’s housing problems.

“I would like it to be a moment of awareness for that fact that the emergency shelters in the Paris region are completely full and we need more places,” Stephane Troussel told reporters on Thursday.

Le Revers de la Médaille said 20,000 homes are needed nationally, including at least 7000 in Île-de-France.

– with AFP