The French government has established 10 temporary regional centres to relocate the homeless from the streets of Paris. More than 60 French organisations have condemned it as "social cleansing" and an attempt to boost the city's image ahead of the 2024 Olympics, at the expense of the homeless.
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00:00 The French government has implemented a new approach to address the homelessness situation
00:07 in Paris. Since last spring, ten temporary shelters have been established across France
00:15 in cities like Toulouse, Bordeaux and Strasbourg, aiming to relocate the homeless from the streets
00:22 of the capital.
00:23 More than 60 organizations sent a letter to the Olympic Games Committee condemning this
00:29 relocation strategy as a social cleansing method. They believe the government intends
00:34 to create a polished image of the capital before the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Paul
00:40 Rosy, one of the spokesperson for the collective of associations, explained his concerns to us.
00:46 You can imagine that, for example, I'm a Afghan asylum seeker, I fled the Taliban dictatorship,
00:51 I arrive in Paris, but one day a bus comes to my camp and takes me away. If unfortunately
00:55 I'm not in the right administrative boxes, I'll end up in a region where there will
00:59 potentially be much less assault for medical, social and legal reasons, and so I'll come
01:04 back to Paris.
01:06 In fact, this policy had already taken place, but the GOP has accelerated it because there
01:10 is an imperative to do what they call a clean city. And the work of harassment and
01:15 cleansing is the words of the interior minister. And so we know that this also applies to the
01:19 populations that the state considers as undesirable.
01:21 I'm here in what was once the largest squat in Paris, known as Unibetom, which was dismantled
01:27 by the police in April. More than 400 people, primarily from Chad and Sudan, were evicted
01:33 from this site, which had been occupied for three years. The area is said to be part of
01:38 the Olympic Village for the 2024 Paris Games.
01:41 We met Faris, who was one of the residents of this squat.
02:09 Other shelters for the homeless in the city are also feeling the pressure, as they are
02:14 located in areas designated as Olympic Game Sites.
02:37 The Paris and the France prefecture affirmed to Euronews their commitment to getting these
02:43 individuals off the streets, Olympics or not, with the aim of securing more dignified accommodation
02:50 for them.
02:51 These people face a precarious situation as they are compelled to attend the interviews
02:55 with the prefecture of Paris, a potentially dangerous process for the migrants lacking
03:00 a legal status which could lead to their expulsion from the country.
03:04 (whooshing)