The move to empty a migrant camp is the latest effort to get migrants out of public view before the global spotlight is trained upon Paris this summer. Rights groups fear the evicted will be left even more vulnerable.
Police in the French capital, Paris, on Wednesday cleared a major migrant squat in the southern suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine with just 100 days to go before the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The makeshift camp at the site of an abandoned bus company office had been home to roughly 450 migrants, mainly young men but including some mothers with small children as well.
Rights groups said most migrants there had documents and were awaiting social housing allotments.
Concerned aid organizations expressed fear that those now being ejected in an effort to “clean up” the city before the Olympics take place — from July 26 to August 11 — would not be able to find long-term housing assistance after being thrown out.
Ahh, takes me back to the ol’ coverup cleanup campaign enacted for the 1936 Olympics… 😊
Takes you back? How old are you?
Good old times. I too, remember them well.
This seems to happen in every int’l sports competition, like the Olympics and the World Cup.
I think it was on a much larger, more reprehensible scale that year…