Charities Warn Of "Social Cleansing" For Paris Olympics

Article source: "JO Paris 2024 : des associations dénoncent un «nettoyage social» des rues de la capitale", Eugénie Boilait, Le Figaro, 30/10/2023.

As the 2024 Summer Olympics draw closer, a collective of over 60 French NGOs has released an open letter accusing the organisers of intending to carry out ‘social cleansing’ of the streets of Paris. The letter is addressed to the Olympic Organising Committee, athletes and sports federations. “The history of major international sporting events around the world reveals a proven risk of ‘social cleansing’ of city streets,” warns the letter, whose signatories include the charities Médecins du Monde and Emmaüs France.

“It has become standard practice for host cities of the Olympic Games since the 1980s. As things stand, there is nothing to suggest that the 2024 Olympics will buck this trend,” they say. They also announced the launch of an awareness-raising campaign called Le revers de la médaille (“the flip side of the medal”). The campaign aims to highlight the “negative impact” of the preparations for this high-profile sporting event. 

“People Seen as Undesirable”

The NGOs are condemning any policy that excludes “people seen as undesirable,” said Paul Alauzy, a spokesperson for Médecins du monde, in an interview on news TV channel France Info. He insisted that, while these policies “have been in place for several years,” the Olympics “have accelerated things”. In the open letter, the collective denounces a range of predicted consequences: “displacement of the homeless, reduced capacity in emergency shelters, help centre closures, cutbacks in food distribution, and so on”.

Alauzy also wanted to raise awareness about the “forced” displacements of the people who have been moved out of construction sites. “I can give you the example of the forced evacuation of a building that is home to 500 people in Île-Saint-Denis, on one of the Olympic Village construction sites. Squatters have already been evicted from five other buildings. There is a migrant camp cleared out once every two to three weeks,” he explained. He went on to say that people who were evicted were systematically sent out of the Île-de-France (Greater Paris) region due to a lack of available accomodation. Yet, according to him, “other regions are no better equipped to accommodate them in the long term”.

Yesterday, the collective therefore decided to temporarily redecorate the Olympic Organising Committee building with signs reading, “FASTER to kick vulnerable people out of Île-de-France”, “HIGHER exploitation of undocumented workers”, “STRONGER in the security response against people living on the street”. Above all, the group criticised what they see as hypocrisy: “the most ‘inclusive’ and ‘exemplary’ games in history? we’ll see about that!” they posted on X (formerly Twitter). 

The collective is consequently petitioning for the establishment of “ambitious and concerted policies, with resources to match the Olympic values” to ensure “continuity of care for vulnerable and marginalised people” before, during, and after the Olympics.

Translated by Charlie Juet, Cécile Lamhene and Zoé Vilers.

Editing by Sam Trainor.