PARIS (AP) – French police on Tuesday evicted migrants from a makeshift camp in Paris, steps from the Seine River. It’s the latest move in what aid groups are calling a “social cleansing” campaign ahead of the Summer Olympics.
Before dawn on an unusually cold April morning, about 30 teenagers and young adults from West Africa were woken up by police and told to pack up their tents and belongings. Most of them were minors seeking residence permits.
“I was already scared, but now I’m even more scared because I don’t know where to go,” said Boubacar Traore, a 16-year-old who arrived in France two months ago after fleeing conflict in Burkina Faso.
The operation comes days after police carried out a mass eviction at France’s largest squatter camp on the southern outskirts of Paris.
Police officers check migrants at a makeshift camp in Paris early Tuesday morning, April 23, 2024. French police have evicted migrants from a makeshift camp in Paris, steps from the Seine River, as authorities carry out a similar operation ahead of the Olympics. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
Police officers inspect migrant tents at a makeshift camp in Paris early Tuesday morning, April 23, 2024. French police have evicted migrants from a makeshift camp in Paris, steps from the Seine River, as authorities carry out a similar operation ahead of the Olympics. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
Such evictions and evacuations of migrant tent camps occur every spring after the end of a winter “truce” during which authorities suspended such measures.
But aid groups working with migrants and other vulnerable groups in the Paris region say such efforts are being stepped up in the run-up to the Olympics. They point out that people are being sent far from the capital without being offered protection in the Paris region, where many asylum seekers have court dates.
“The authorities want to have a clean place for the Olympics. They don’t want tourists to think that Paris is a city full of migrants and asylum seekers,” said a refugee and migrant support organization. volunteer Elias Houfganel said Tuesday at a tent camp in Paris.
Paris police said the operation was carried out for security reasons, including the tent camp’s proximity to a school.
Two large buses bound for Besancon, 400 kilometers (240 miles) southeast of Paris, were parked on a nearby street. The authorities offered to move the young people there and provided them with three weeks of housing. However, most people did not take up the offer for fear of becoming even more isolated and haphazard after the three weeks had passed.
Traore was among those who refused to travel because he was awaiting a court appearance in Paris two days later. It was unclear where he would sleep Tuesday night.
