Activists accuse authorities of 'social cleansing' for clearing homeless out of Paris

The 2024 Olympics are coming to an end, but in the lead-up to and during the games, French authorities cleared thousands of homeless people out of Paris. Police cited security reasons, but homeless advocates see it differently. Ross Cullen of Feature Story News reports from Paris.

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Geoff Bennett: The 2024 Olympics are coming to an end, but in the lead-up to and during the Games, French authorities cleared thousands of homeless people out of Paris.

Police have cited security reasons, but homeless advocates see it very differently.

Ross Cullen of Feature Story News reports from Paris.

Ross Cullen: This is home for a night for Mamadou. He and his wife share this small tent. One backpack is all they have. The tents were set up by a migrant support group that got permission to use an empty building on the outskirts of Paris.

Mamadou, Migrant From Senegal (through interpreter): Right now, I would say it’s hard to integrate if you don’t have somewhere to sleep. It’s difficult. It’s difficult.

Ross Cullen: In 2018, Mamadou came to work in France from one of its former colonies, Senegal, in West Africa. After years in immigration limbo, he now has his legal papers, but says he and his wife are traumatized by how they are treated.

Earlier this year, she suffered a miscarriage when the couple was attacked here in Paris.

Mamadou (through interpreter): It’s hellish. Sometimes, we sleep in the streets, sometimes at train stations. We can be assaulted. Our belongings were stolen. The only bag I have today is one backpack, one pair of shoes, and just what I’m wearing.

Ross Cullen: There are 100,000 homeless people like Mamadou living in and around Paris, but not enough shelter to house all of them. Last year, the French government began busing the homeless, many of whom are migrants, to temporary shelters across the country.

Activists call the monthslong campaign social cleansing. Those who remain in Paris often live in tents like these. Action groups installed this demonstration as a protest to try to force the government to provide more support to the homeless community. This is the image the French government sought to avoid as they prepared for the Paris Olympics.

Now and every night, activists from aid organization Utopia 56 meet the homeless in Paris to find a place for them to sleep. They say they do what they can when state support falls through.

Nathan Lequeux is the group’s accommodation coordinator.

Nathan Lequeux, Utopia 56 (through interpreter): Government policy on emergency accommodation and housing is nonexistent. It is even damaging and totally aggressive towards these people. In other words, these people end up on the streets, and that’s a political choice. It’s a choice made by the government.

Ross Cullen: In Northern Paris, police cleared the area that used to be a homeless encampment. It’s now an empty lot. Boats meander past what used to be a tented community.

The French sports minister denies social cleansing is taking place. Amelie Oudea Castera says emergency accommodation policy decisions have nothing to do with the Olympics. Some people still live in this district in tents partially hidden behind a hedge, harder for police patrols to spot.

And Paris works to keep community support systems like this open for them, offering free showers. Anyone can come. No questions are asked. But city authorities argue more respect should be shown to vulnerable people.

Lea Filoche is the deputy mayor of Paris for refugee protection. She says the French government’s policy is hostile to migrants.

Lea Filoche, Deputy Mayor of Paris for Refugee Protection (through interpreter): The policies today force people to stay on the streets, where they can’t access their rights, where they don’t have any dignity. For the last four years, the government’s migration policy has not been welcoming to migrants. In fact, it’s been quite the opposite.

Olympics or not, I am against this policy because this is not how we should resolve the situation.

Ross Cullen: And activists say authorities silence any mention of the government’s policy. The Other Side of the Medal is a collective group of associations and activists focusing on the social impact of the Paris Olympics.

This week, they staged a collage of portraits of people who used to live on the streets. While we were filming, law enforcement arrived. The presence of dozens of police officers underlined the tensions surrounding anything concerning migrants in Paris, including art.

Paul Alauzy, Other Side of the Medal (through interpreter): Usually, when we see the police, it’s to move on people living in tents on the riverside. Today, it’s to prevent us from expressing something about that issue.

Ross Cullen: These Olympics have impacted homeless immigrant Niclette. French authorities transferred her out of Paris before the Games began. But every day, she has to make her way back to the capital to access food for her and her 5-month-old daughter.

Niclette, Migrant From Congo (through interpreter): Unfortunately, due to the Olympic Games, when I called the emergency support number, they said you can’t remain here. They offer the suburbs or different towns far away, not here in Paris.

Ross Cullen: Niclette came from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on a grueling path that led through Turkey to Greece, and eventually she made it to France, seeking a chance at a better life.

Niclette (through interpreter): I’m looking for an apartment where I can stay and then I will look for work. But how can I work if I have nowhere to stay? I’m stuck.

Ross Cullen: And even as the Olympic Games bring joy to millions of spectators, for people like Niclette, the rare moments of happiness she enjoys are coupled with an uncertain future for her and her daughter.

For the PBS “News Hour,” I’m Ross Cullen in Paris.