Carrying backpacks and small children, hundreds of people sleeping on the streets of Paris climbed aboard buses surrounded by armed police on Thursday, the latest group of migrants and homeless people to be driven out of the city ahead of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.
The group of largely African migrants headed for the fringes of the city in buses paid for by the French government and into temporary lodging until at least the end of the Games.
While some living on the streets were happy to have a roof over their head for the night, few knew what laid ahead once the world’s eyes were off Paris.
“It’s like poker. I don’t know where I will go, or how much time I will stay,” said Nikki, a 47-year-old homeless Parisian who asked that her last name not be used to protect her privacy.
French authorities have been clearing out migrant and homeless encampments for months leading up to the massive global sports event, which is an important moment for President Emmanuel Macron at a time of political turmoil.
Authorities also have been sharply criticised as they have bused camping migrants from the city centre where the Olympics are taking place to the fringes of Paris or other areas.
Activist groups and migrants have called the practice – long used in other Olympic host cities like Rio de Janeiro in 2016 – a form of “social cleansing”.
“They want to clean the city for the Olympic Games, for the tourists,” said Nathan Lequeux, an organiser for the activist group Utopia 56.
“As treatment of migrants is becoming more horrible and infamous, people are being chased off the streets. … Since the Olympics, this aggressiveness, this policy of hunting has become more pronounced.”
Christophe Noel Du Payrat, chief of staff of the regional government of Ile-de-France that surrounds Paris, firmly denied those accusations and said the government has relocated migrants from the city for years.
“We are taking care of them,” he said. ”We don’t really understand the criticism because we are very much determined to offer places for these people.”
He spoke as dozens of police rounded up migrants, blocking them from walking on the streets and putting up caution tape.
When asked why there were so many armed police officers for a group largely made up of families, Mr Noel Du Payrat said it was to maintain “peace and calm”.
The buses on Thursday came after three days of protest by hundreds of migrants and other homeless people like Nikki, who slept in front of a local government office as athletes and tourists flooded into Paris.
They railed against authorities breaking up homeless encampments and demanded better access to temporary housing.
