The mayor of Bruz, in the Rennes conurbation, contests the installation of a temporary reception center on land in his municipality. On the side of La France insoumise, we wonder about the potential link between these trips to the regions and the organization of the Olympic Games in Paris next year.
The government had already been criticized for preparing the mobilization of student accommodation for the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It is now suspected of wanting to camouflage the presence of homeless people in the capital by organizing their movement in other regions of France. The municipal council of Bruz, in the suburbs of Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), thus expressed Monday, May 22 its opposition to the installation in its municipality of a temporary reception center.
The prefecture, which disputes any link with the Games, presents the future site as an “airlock” for people who have come voluntarily from Ile-de-France, with a view to their distribution to other structures in Brittany. Similar locations are to open in nine other regions, however. Franceinfo explains what we know about this project and the reasons why it is contested.
1 What is the government plan?
Asked about the planned site in Bruz on Tuesday, the secretary general of the Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture described a broader project of “national solidarity”, intended to remedy the particularly glaring lack of emergency accommodation places in Ile-de-France. The government has asked “a dozen regional prefects to create temporary reception centers”, he explained. In March, the Directorate General for Foreigners in France, which depends on the Ministry of the Interior, already explained to 20 minutes that a center of this type would open in each region of metropolitan France, with the exception of Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France and Corsica, i.e. ten centers in total.
These places will welcome, on a voluntary basis, people from Ile-de-France and living on the street or in emergency accommodation, explained to AFP the office of the Minister Delegate for the City and Housing, Oliver Klein. Although this system mainly concerns migrants, it is not specifically aimed at them and will be open to all profiles. Residents will be cared for for three weeks in these “airlock” before being “oriented”in their new region, “towards the type of accommodation corresponding to their situation”.
Their stay should allow them to assess their “social and administrative situation”, said Olivier Klein on Wednesday on franceinfo. For example, it will make it possible to determine which people can benefit from the status of asylum seeker and be accommodated in the centers intended for them. These people will be “much better accompanied in these places in the provinces than they can be in Ile-de-France”said the minister.
Associations are still wondering about the reality of accommodation solutions, including far from Paris. “What we know about Rennes Métropole is that it’s completely saturated”alerted Tuesday to France 3 Jean-François Durand, president of the association Home refugees Bruz, acknowledging not to know the situation in the rest of the Breton region.
The establishment of this reception for homeless people from Ile-de-France is the variation to a wider public of an initiative already in place since 2021 concerning more specifically asylum seekers. We do not know for the moment the complete list of cities that will host these new “airlocks”. Manuel Domerguedirector of studies at the Abbé-Pierre Foundation, said on franceinfo on Wednesday that he had “echoes” of a similar project in the metropolis of Strasbourg.
2 Why is it making waves in Brittany?
In Bruz, it is the local opposition that has put the spotlight on this government plan. Philippe Salmon, DVG mayor of the Breton town, said he had been warned by the prefecture of the upcoming installation of this reception center, without prior consultation. “We are presented with a fait accompli”, he laments to France Bleu. On Monday, the city council issued an unfavorable opinion, but the prefecture is not obliged to take it into account, because the land belongs to the SNCF.
Besides the manner, the chosen one is concerned about the site chosen, located near a railway line and polluted, according to him, by hydrocarbons and heavy metals. The prefecture replies that the place will be closed to prevent access to the rails, and that it will follow the recommendations of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) concerning the risk of pollution, in particular by raising the accommodation. The prefecture also affirms to West France that the study referred to by the mayor is “a bit old and not fully documented”.
The mayor stresses for his part that Bruz already provides an association with 22 accommodation units intended for foreign nationals awaiting regularization. Philippe Salmon assures that he has no opposition in principle to the reception of other homeless people, whatever their nationality. “We also worry about our safety, if things go wrong, even if there is no reason”he says, however, to France Bleu, referring to “what happened in Callac (Cotes-d’Armor) and Saint Brevin (Loire Atlantique)“, where elected officials were threatened with death, against a backdrop of mobilizations stirred up by the far right against projects for a reception center for asylum seekers. If the center of Bruz sees the light of day, it will be permanently monitored by security guards, says the prefecture to West France.
3 Is there a link between this project and the Olympic Games?
Three deputies from La France insoumise, Nadege Abomangoli, Clemence Guette And Clementine Autainaccused the government on Twitter of creating these “airlocks” to keep homeless people, especially migrants, away from Paris ahead of the organization of the Olympic Games in August 2024. A hypothesis also raised by associations and by the mayor de Bruz, who also points to the concordance with the Rugby World Cup organized in France in September and October next (whose matches will however be distributed in nine cities of the territory).
“I hope I’m wrong, but since we are told that this airlock should disappear at the end of 2024, beginning of 2025, it’s surprising, isn’t it?”wonders Philippe Salmon with West France. “No one uses a sporting event as a pretext to solve a humanitarian problem”responds on franceinfo the Minister Delegate to the City and Housing, Olivier Klein, who ensures that the project has the sole objective of remedying the difficulties of supporting homeless people in Ile-de-France.
A situation which is however aggravated by the sporting deadlines, affirms on franceinfo Manuel Domergue, director of studies of the Abbé-Pierre Foundation. According to him, “thousands” of hotel rooms used to house homeless people, in particular since the Covid-19 pandemic, are today “taken over by hoteliers” to carry out work in preparation for the Olympic Games, or take advantage now of the return of tourists to the capital.