France evicts thousands of homeless immigrants ahead of Paris Olympics: Report
President Emmanuel Macron-led French government has begun evicting thousands of homeless migrants from Paris ahead of the Olympic Games 2024 scheduled between July 26 and August 11, a New York Times report stated on Thursday.
According to the report, authorities are asking the immigrants, mostly single men, to board buses to cities like Lyon or Marseille.
These immigrants were reportedly assured that they would receive housing in their new locations. However, many have found themselves living on unfamiliar streets without the promised accommodations or facing potential deportation.
“We were expelled because of the Olympic Games,” an immigrant who was evicted from an abandoned cement factory near the Olympic Village told The New York Times.
“They give you a random ticket,” said another immigrant from the Central African Republic, who was on the eviction bus. “If it’s a ticket to Orleans, you go to Orleans,” he added.
The French government has not commented on the eviction by the time this news article was published.
Even in April this year, police carried out a large-scale eviction at France’s biggest squat in the south of Paris. Authorities cleared out the makeshift camp at an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine.
This camp had become home to about 450 migrants, with images of the eviction spreading rapidly across social media.
Around 300 people, clutching their belongings in bags, suitcases, or trolleys, calmly departed from the camp. Most were young men, but several women with children were also among the crowd.
There are about 7 million immigrants living in France, or about 10.3 per cent of the population, with numbers rising steadily since 2000, a report published by news agency Reuters stated last month.
Immigration costs France 40 billion euros (USD 42.84 billion) a year, but experts claim that estimate is fanciful as calculating the true costs is almost impossible, the report added.
