African migrants removed from Paris City Hall ahead of Olympics
With the Olympics just around the corner, local police removed migrants from the Paris City Hall plaza on April 3, ABC News reported.
The much-anticipated sporting event will take place from July 26 to August 11 in venues across the French capital.
Around 50 migrants, mostly women and children, were based at the Paris City Hall, sheltering in tents and covering themselves with blankets and plastic sheets to shield against the rain while sleeping in the plaza.
City hall is preparing to mark 100 days to the start of the Olympics in around two weeks’ time.
The police ordered them to board a bus to Besançon, an eastern city 410km away from Paris, where they will stay in temporary government accommodation.
Rights groups and charities have expressed concern at the harsh treatment those sleeping rough have been subjected to and fear that the situation will only get worse.
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Yann Manzi, a member of the migrant aid group Utopia 56, criticised the authorities’ treatment of those neglected on the streets, saying that they were bending over backwards to “clear the city” prior to the major summer event.
Manzi added, “What is happening is nothing short of social cleansing of the city.”
For months now, Utopia 56 have helped homeless migrants in Paris by handing out food, blankets and sanitary products as well as helping some of them find temporary accommodation for a few nights.
Many of the families are from French-speaking African countries most notably, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Senegal.
In September last year, the French authorities ramped up the purging of homeless people out of Paris with many still left in limbo as to where they will be taken to.
The French government has said that on a weekly basis, between 50 and 150 people are taken to one of 10 locations across the country.
Data from February of this year found that around 4,300 people live on the streets of Greater Paris with that number set to significantly decrease in the months to come.
ABC News/ Euronews
