12,000 expulsions in Île-de-France before the 2024 Olympics ? The damning report from an associative collective

According to the associative collective Le Revers de la médaille, more than 12 000 expulsions of "publics in situations of great precariousnessé" have been ordered between May 2023 and April 2024.

12 545. This is the number of people in a precarious situation. who have been é expelled from Ile-de-France & the approach of the Olympic Games (OJ) in Paris 2024. A figure made public this Monday, June 3, in a report from the collective Le Revers de la médaille, which brings together more than 80 associations helping the most vulnerable people. Under "pressure" of the organization of the Olympic Games, the Paris region was "emptied of some of its most precarious inhabitants" regrets the collective.

A "social cleansing before the Olympics"

Between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024, no less than 12,545 people were arrested. expelled, mainly migrants. An increase of 38.5% in one year according to figures from the Observatory of evictions from informal living spaces. "It's huge and çshows in a documented way the social cleansing before the Olympics" denounces Paul Alauzy, coordinator à Médecins du monde and spokesperson for the collective in the columns of franceinfo. The collective speaks in particular of an "intensification" "expulsions from street camps of exiled people" and the will "to invisibilize" poverty. 

On the other hand, according to figures from the prefecture of the region &Ile-de-France, relayed by franceinfo, over the period 2023- By 2024, 5,224 people have been employed. expelled. 3,958 last year, and 1,266 since the start of 2024. considerable discrepancy with the information revealed by the collective The Reverse of the Medal this Monday 3rd ;nbsp;June. The collective is precisely highlighting “16 operations in four months at the end of 2023, or half of the total number of operations.” of expulsions of the year and 26 operations in the first five months of 2024, almost as many as for the whole of 2022. ;. 

Evictions in Ile-de-France and regions

The expelled people are now dispersed outside Ile-de-France to be received in airlocks. temporary regional reception centers, created in March 2023, for a maximum duration of three weeks with a promise of long-term accommodation &agrav; the key. The collective sees this as travel without consent "truly free and éenlightened" and deplores the "virtually non-existence" social diagnosis before expulsions. In addition, he fears that the "perimeters and security devices" and "the significant police presence" make "public space increasingly inhospitable for people in very precarious situations, and sometimes staying irregularly" . 

A situation which does not exclusively concern the Paris region. Indeed, the report highlights “other cities hosting certain events”. The Observatory of Evictions from Informal Living Places mentions in particular the eviction from a shanty town in the city. Bordeaux à the end of March. Nearly 500 people stayed there, close to the Matmut Atlantique stadium. Same observation à Lille, mid-May, in the shanty town of Parc Matisse inhabited by by 60 people. 

"D&eac;dehumanization" and "absence of consideration"

At the same time, The Reverse of the Medal deplores the " harassment" and administrative "controls & repeat" sex workers, to "ékeep them away from public spaces". "numerous expulsions" have also been é observed by the association Aides, which manages a reception and support center &agrav; risk reduction for drug users (CAARUD) near Les Halles à Paris. Combined actions, in France and in the regions, which participate for the collective in "dédehumanization" and &agrav; "a lack of consideration of individual situations".