Standing in front of Paris City Hall and the sign for the Olympic Games host city, hundreds of homeless young people know they are not welcome in the French capital.
They were all sleeping rough next to the Seine River before riot police broke in and destroyed their tents.
Social workers took as many names as possible, before they were all loaded onto coaches and driven hundreds of kilometers away.
This is now commonplace in Emmanuel Macron’s France, where the president is accused of “social cleansing” and “hiding poverty” in time for the multi-million dollar Summer Olympics.
“We are all living in fear, they just don’t want us here,” a man sleeping on the street, who asked to be identified as 22-year-old Okot, told MailOnline.
Macron accused of ‘social cleansing’ and ‘hiding poverty’ in time for multi-million dollar Summer Olympics
Homeless man said he was ‘living in fear’
President Macron has undoubtedly staked his reputation on the success of the Paris 2024 sporting spectacle.
Emmanuel Macron has given the Paris Olympics an operating budget of £4bn
Okot says he comes from war-torn Sudan and wants to apply for asylum in France, but has little hope of getting accommodation while he waits.
“That’s how I ended up on the street,” he said. ‘It’s not because I’ve had any kind of problem with drugs or alcohol.
‘I’ve been in Paris for about six weeks, but I know many others who have been here much longer.
“We see the Olympic posters everywhere and we know there is no place for us here because of the games.”
President Macron has undoubtedly staked his reputation on the success of the Paris 2024 sporting spectacle.
It will not be inaugurated until July 26, but the head of state is already calling it “a moment of beauty, true art and a celebration of sport and our values.”
They are the first European games since London 2012, and Macron wants them to be even bigger and better.
This is why the operating budget was set at the equivalent of more than £4bn, and this figure can double to £8bn if the cost of new buildings such as an aquatic center is added. Last generation.
Much of this huge sum comes from the private sector, including some of the world’s richest multinationals, such as Paris-based luxury goods group LVMH.
Barges from all participating countries will glide down the Seine River for a glamorous opening ceremony, for which no expenses will be suspended.
There are still some tickets available, priced at €1,600 (£1,450) or up to €7,500 (£6,400) for those who want a hospitality package for the event, which lasts just over three hours.
Parisians have demonstrated over Macron’s management of the Olympic Games.
There are still illegal camps along the Seine, but police carry out raids almost every morning.
A new report from a charity called Le Revers de la Medaille (The Other Side of the Coin) claims that evictions are increasing
Luc Viger, head of unaccompanied minors at Utopia 56, the migrant charity, said evacuations from the camps were definitely increasing in the run-up to the Olympics.
“When people spend that kind of money, they don’t really want the poor,” said Bohdan, who said he was 19 years old and originally from Ukraine.
‘I am a student who wanted to spend some time in France during the summer and to avoid high charges I always try to sleep outside.
“Unfortunately, we are all told that this will not be possible now that the Olympic Games are approaching.”
There are still illegal camps along the Seine, but police carry out raids almost every morning.
One of them took place a few hundred meters from the Town Hall in late April, where mainly West Africans slept on the sidewalks next to the 15th-century Saint-Gervais church.
They were all told that the 120,000 emergency housing beds in Paris were occupied and that they would be better off in the provinces.
But a new report from a charity group called Le Revers de la Medaille (The Other Side of the Coin) claims that evictions are increasing and there will be more in the run-up to the Olympics.
Paul Alauzy, spokesperson for the group, stated that “things are getting out of control” as “expulsions and police interventions within future security perimeters” increase.
Many of those expelled from the illegal site near City Hall were forced onto buses and told they would be taken to Besançon, which is more than 400 kilometers from Paris.
The Revers de la Medaille report claims that Macron’s administration is acting just like Chinese authorities, who removed homeless people from the streets of Beijing before the 2008 Games.
There was also a similar campaign by Brazil, before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.
The main goal, according to the charities, is to remove all tents and rough sleeping bags from Paris before the international television crews arrive in July.
The roughly 70 tents next to City Hall housed immigrants from former French colonies in West Africa, who said they included unaccompanied minors who had a legal right to be housed.
They ended up on the streets after officials questioned their claims of being under 18.
One, who said he was 15 and from Cameroon, said: ‘We are attacked by the police, who hate us. Increasingly, we have nowhere to go. Many of us don’t want to get on coaches because they take us from Paris and then we have to make a long journey back.’
Many of those expelled from the illegal site near City Hall were forced onto buses and told they would be taken to Besançon, which is more than 400 kilometers from Paris.
Spokespeople for the City of Paris and the French Ministry of the Interior denied that there was an official policy of ‘social cleansing’ or ‘concealing poverty’.
Figures suggest there were 33 major camp evictions in the year to March, compared to 19 in the year to March last year, the new report states.
He also notes that other cities in France involved in the Olympic Games are being subjected to “social cleansing” aimed at “hiding poverty.”
At the end of March, a shanty town next to the Bordeaux football stadium, where Olympic football will be played, was evacuated.
Luc Viger, head of unaccompanied minors at Utopia 56, the migrant charity, said evacuations from the camps were definitely increasing in the run-up to the Olympics.
“We are evacuating the fields every two or three weeks, whereas before it was once every two months,” said Mr Viger.
Spokesmen for the City of Paris and the French Ministry of the Interior denied that there was any official policy of “social cleansing” or “concealing poverty”, let alone in time for the Olympic Games.
“The police are obliged to close unauthorized camps for reasons of hygiene and safety,” said a spokesperson for the Hôtel de Ville.
