Homeless people faces ejection in Paris before Olympics

Homeless people living in Paris will be encouraged to leave in the build-up to next year’s Olympics and Paralympics in the French capital.

The French Government wants thousands of people to move on in the Île-de-France region, according to AFP.

Nearly 5,000 hotel rooms are currently said to be in use for emergency accommodation, with the owners wanting to use these for the influx of Paris 2024 visitors instead.

France is also due to host this year’s Rugby World Cup in September and October.

A proposal has been put forward to set up “temporary regional accommodation facilities” in all regions of France, except Hauts-de-France and Corsica.

People would then be directed to a new region and into accommodation “corresponding to their situation”. 

The issue mainly concerns migrants, AFP said, with some living on the street or in camps.

But the plan has proved controversial with Eric Constantin, the head of the Abbé Pierre Foundation in Île-de-France, suggesting that “dignified and decent solutions” would be hard to find.

“Did the Government want to ensure that there would be no more encampment before millions of people arrived in France?” he said.

Bruz in Brittany has been earmarked for an accommodation centre but its Mayor Philippe Salmon said he was opposed to the idea.

The Government has estimated that hotel capacity available to accommodate homeless people “will fall by 3,000 to 4,000 places” due to the major sporting events.

Hadrien Clouet, from the left wing France Unbowed party, accused the Government of taking on “the method of all authoritarian regimes and moving the homeless by force to hide them from sight of those taking part in the 2024 Olympics”.

The Head of Homelessness Charity, the federation for solidarity workers, Pascal Brice, said that taking people off the streets and into better conditions across France could be good in theory.

He said there was the danger of “putting people on buses” and then forgetting about them.

“Will they put in the necessary resources?” he added to France 24.

Homeless people were reportedly moved on before the Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

In China, people were allegedly shipped back to their home regions, while Brazilian campaigners said homeless people were forced out of tourist areas in the middle of the night. –Insidethegames