French police on Wednesday cleared dozens of migrants, including families with young children, from the forecourt of Paris City Hall as the capital geared up to mark 100 days until the start of the Olympic Games.
At dawn, police removed approximately 50 individuals, mostly women and children aged 3 months to 10 years, who had been sleeping in the plaza, some bundled up in strollers, under blankets or covered with plastic sheets to shield against the rain. The migrants gathered their belongings and boarded a bus to temporary local government housing in the town of Besancon in eastern France.
Aid workers are concerned that the move Wednesday is the beginning of a broader effort by Paris authorities to clear out migrants and others sleeping rough in the capital before the summer Olympics without providing longer-term housing options.
"They’re clearing the way for the Olympic Games,” Yann Manzi, a member of the migrant aid group Utopia 56, told The Associated Press during Wednesday’s police operation in central Paris. "What is happening is nothing short of social cleansing of the city.”
Olympics organizers have said they are working with aid groups to find solutions for those on the streets, including the many people who come to Paris from around the world seeking refuge or employment.
Many of the families are from French-speaking African countries, including Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Senegal. They have been sleeping beneath the ornate facade of the Paris monument for days, weeks and some even for months. Aid groups such as Utopia 56 have distributed food, blankets, and diapers and helped some of them find temporary lodging for a night or two.
Fatoumata, a mother of two from Guinea, spent a whole month sleeping on the streets of Paris with her two children, aged 3 months and 3 years.
"It’s no way to live, it’s exhausting,” Fatoumata said, holding the baby and clutching the toddler to her. She boarded the bus in the hope that life would be better outside the capital.
"They told us we are going to the provinces, which is better than sleeping outside with the children,” Fatoumata said. She spoke on condition her full name not be published because she doesn’t have residency papers.
The Paris Games will run from July 26-Aug. 11, followed by the Paralympics from Aug. 28-Sept. 8.
