InfoMigrants: What is happening to people who live on the streets of the capital as the Olympic Games approaches?

Paul Alauzy: We are speaking out against the 'social cleansing' underway in the streets of Paris and the Ile-de-France region.

We know cameras from all over the world will be focused on Paris during the Olympics. The authorities will want to hide the homeless people, migrants, beggars and drug users who live in the capital during the period. The streets must be 'clean', and the government is already preparing the ground.

Paris police have already evacuated several major 'squats', including Unibéton, the largest in Ile-de-France. It was closed to make way for the future Olympic village.

Paris police cleared the Unibéton 'squat' last April. Around 400 people, mostly Chadians and Sudanese, were evicted from the derelict building in the Paris region, which had been inhabited since 2020.

The government does not want tourists to see undocumented or homeless people sleeping outside and hanging their laundry in the streets of Paris. We fear they will employ an arsenal of repressive tactics to force these people out of tourist areas, such as orders against begging in train stations or the banning of food distribution...

The Paris Police Prefecture (PP) issued an order on October 10 banning food distributions in a district in the north of Paris where migrant and homeless camps are concentrated. A Paris court overturned the police order a week later.

This logic follows the authorities’ tendency to mistreat people who live on the streets.

IM: Your condemnation of the government's migration policy is not new…

PA: Indeed, the associations and collectives who signed the open letter are committed against numerous government projects: the anti-squatting law, the future [French] immigration bill...

The debate on the upcoming immigration bill will begin in the French Senate on November 6. As part of the text, the government plans to: create a residence permit to help fill the gap in sectors suffering from labor shortages; make the issuance of a residence permit conditional on an individual’s level of French; and facilitate the expulsion of foreign delinquents who represent a threat to public order.

Those who are poorly housed are mistreated, those who occupy empty buildings are criminalized, undocumented immigrants who have been rejected for asylum and who have no other choice but to sleep in the streets of the capital are harassed.

Read more: 'No papers, no Olympic Games': Hundreds of unregistered migrant workers protest for regularization

The decrees are never made with a mindset of welcome, inclusion and access to care.

We are witnessing a total contradiction between these policies and France's communication on Olympic values, France as a city of refuge or as a welcoming city. In fact, we are seeing quite the opposite.

The State is talking about the most 'inclusive' Olympic Games in history, but for whom?

IM: You condemn the fact that migrants and homeless people are sent to the regions [of France]. Why is this an inadequate solution, according to you? 

PA: We have no problem with sending migrants to the regions, if the welcome is dignified and unconditional, and if the regions have the proper resources.

But this is not the case. Migrants are transferred to the regions, to SAS (centers), for a temporary period.

The SAS are regional centers where migrants are housed for three weeks. During this period, the authorities investigate their administrative situation in order to redirect them to suitable facilities.

Read more: 'We're worried about doing more harm', say French homeless hotline responders

If certain people fall into the right categories, such as new arrivals and non-Dublin residents (a classic asylum seeker who can file for asylum in France), they will be taken in charge. The others, like the rejected asylum seekers and the undocumented immigrants, will end up on the street after three weeks of accommodation. They find themselves in unfamiliar cities where there are fewer associations than in Paris.

It’s always the same pattern: local authorities find themselves overwhelmed, and the migrants return to Paris on their own.

If the goal of these SAS is to make migrants invisible, it works. On the other hand, if the objective is to take better care of people, then it is a failure.

IM: What are you asking from the authorities?

PA: Our open letter was a success. We already have numerous meetings scheduled: with the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (COJO), elected politicians from NUPES [a loose leftist opposition coalition] and MoDem [a centrist party].

We intend to explain: the government's policy to COJO and the wandering imposed on people who live on the streets.

We are asking for [the establishment of] a welcome center in Ile-de-France with access for associations, based on the same model as what was done to welcome Ukrainians, but this time for all nationalities. We want a plan to take in charge people who are excluded and on the street during and after the Olympics.