after a new evacuation of a homeless camp, associations denounce a “social cleansing” of the capital for the Games

On Tuesday, the police evicted the occupants of around thirty tents in the 5th arrondissement, offering them a departure for Besançon. Usual operations, assures the prefecture, which denies any link with the imminence of the Olympic Games.

“Hello, it’s the police. You have to go out, sir.” It was barely 6 a.m. on Tuesday April 23 when a dozen police officers approached around thirty igloo tents arranged along a wall on the outskirts of the Jussieu campus, rue des Fossés-Saint-Bernard, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. Under the metal structure of the university building, young migrants from Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast are slowly emerging from their sleep and their makeshift shelters. A few meters away, in the darkness, a bus is waiting with the door open. The prefecture’s services offer a rehousing solution in Besançon (Doubs), but few migrants seem interested in an adventure in Eastern France.

“We have recourse [juridiques] here, why do you want to send us to Besançon?”a man responds anxiously as he emerges from his tent, before taking his belongings away in a makeshift bundle. “You’re going to abandon us, we want a real place”says another. “There are no more places in Paris”, insists an official from the prefectural services. But three months before the Paris Olympic Games, the associations that came to provide help to people on the street denounce a new operation weakening the most precarious, a week after the evacuation of the largest squat in France in Vitry-sur- Seine (Val-de-Marne).

“We are currently feeling the ‘social cleansing’, with two evacuations per week”insists Aurélia Huot, of Paris Solidarity Bar, a structure which encourages volunteering by Parisian lawyers. “Before, shelter for minors was always in Ile-de-France, and for families, there were also regularly solutions here. But there, for almost two years, they have barely offered more solutions in Ile-de-France”also notes Luc Viger, of the Utopia 56 association.

The authorities maintain that these evacuations, entrusted to the police, have no link with the organization of the Games this summer in Paris. “We have been carrying out these shelter operations for many years. Not at all to create a clear space, but to ensure that those concerned are not left on the street”assured Marc Guillaume, prefect of the Ile-de-France region, in October on France Bleu Paris. “Obviously, [ce travail] continues while the Olympics at the same time must be organized, but these two questions have no connection.”

“Almost an expulsion every week”

On the ground, the feeling is completely different. “In one year, all the squats where we intervened and where there were more than a hundred people were evacuated. They are evicting so many that during the Games, there will be nothing to see.” assures Paul Alauzy, coordinator of Médecins du monde and member of the Le Revers de la Medal collective. “There was almost an expulsion every weeksays Elias, volunteer with the Utopia 56 association. Here, we are in a busy place, in front of a university, so they want to keep things clear.”

“When tourists, during the Olympics, go for a walk on the banks of the Seine, it has to be like a postcard.”

Elias, volunteer of the Utopia 56 association

at franceinfo

Near the Arab World Institute and the banks of the Seine, Elias and the other volunteers collect tents and blankets to prevent them from being thrown away by the police. A volunteer from Utopia 56 looks for solutions with one of the migrants and indicates a wooded place in the suburbs, where the day’s evacuees can re-pitch their tents. “We do scouting during marauding to find places where they will not be harassed by the police”, he explains to franceinfo. Some homeless people have agreed to go to temporary accommodation located in the 18th arrondissement, but for the others, the street remains the only horizon.

“The associations do not offer any solutions”

Sitting on a concrete ledge, Assane (whose first name has been changed) stares into space. “I don’t know where to go, I don’t know any other places, but I have an appointment with the lawyer on the 25th”, confides this Burkinabé, who arrived in France two months ago. The services of the Ile-de-France prefecture on site Tuesday morning are trying to extol the merits of Besançon: “It’s two hours from Paris and the trains aren’t that expensive.” In reality, it takes three hours, and prices vary from 20 to 80 euros.

“It’s not so terrible to go to the provinces, nor to make a round trip from Besançon to Paris, especially for people who have already crossed many countries”judges an official met by franceinfo on site. “The associations do not offer any solutions, they just suggest that people continue to sleep on the street”. “But they are the State services, it is up to them to find a solution!”exclaims Aurélia Huot, from the Paris Solidarity Bar. “We have every means of accommodating all these people in France. There is a shortage of more than 20,000 accommodation places and we have the funds.“, estimates Elias, from the Utopia 56 association.

The prefecture also assures migrants that, far from Paris, they will benefit from sustainable accommodation and social support. “It’s wrong”, annoys Aurélia Huot. The associations claim to have different feedback from young migrants who have accepted this option during previous operations. According to the lawyer, “during a recent evacuation of a square in the 16th arrondissement, three young people agreed to leave reception area in Rouen, but upon their arrival, they were not taken care of, because the structure was not adapted to young minors in recourse. They were put back on the street and had to return to Paris.”