The Paris prefecture on Wednesday said it had removed people living “illegally” along the river – RFI reports.
Security forces in Paris have evicted about 400 people living in tents along the Seine river as rising waters threaten to flood its banks. Human rights groups say the move is part of a wider attempt to get rid of homeless people and migrants ahead of the Olympics.
“Some tents are directly threatened by the rising waters,” the prefecture warned, adding the lives of occupants were in danger.
Migrant and homeless rights groups denounced the lack of temporary housing for displaced people: “The pre-Olympic Games manhunt has started,” wrote Utopia 56, a group that provides services to homeless migrants, on X.
Last November, the Other Side of the Medal, an umbrella group with 80 members, launched a campaign to highlight the impact of the Olympics on disadvantaged residents.
In an open letter to the organisers, they wrote: “The Games will cause profound upheaval in the city, with a very negative impact on these people’s lives: eviction of the homeless, fewer places in emergency shelters, closure of reception services, decrease in food distribution, and so on.”
The French government, for its part, has explicitly denied that the goal of the Olympics is “zero homelessness,” saying that additional housing for the homeless will be part of their legacy.
Demonstrations in cities and rural areas erupted after Paris homeless people were moved to temporary accommodation centres in provincial France ahead of the Olympics, which will run from July 26 to August 11 and the Paralympics from August 28 to September 8.
