Outrage in Paris: Homeless people will be kicked off the streets before the 2024 Olympic Games | Israel Hayom

Local politicians and charities in France have expressed concern about the French government's plan to encourage thousands of homeless people and asylum seekers to leave the Paris area before next year's Olympic Games and move to other parts of the country to free up accommodation.

Agence France-Presse reported that since mid-March, the government has asked local provinces to create temporary reception centres, making way for hotels normally used as emergency centres.

Housing Minister Olivier Klein told parliament this month that many hotels did not want to be used as accommodation for the homeless or asylum seekers this autumn because they were expecting many visitors during the Rugby World Cup, and the same is true for next summer's Olympics.

Under the plan, homeless people who voluntarily leave Paris or surrounding areas will be housed for three weeks in temporary regional admission centers, paid by the state. Bruges, a town of 18,000 people, was slated to house one of the reception centers, which is supposed to accommodate 50 people. However, its mayor, Philip Salmon, said he was not in favor of the center being built there, under conditions he called "unsuitable."

Salmon criticized the state of the land where the center was supposed to be located, which was described as a wasteland near railroad tracks. "The soil is contaminated with heavy metals and gasoline. As far as we are concerned, these are not honorable conditions in which to house people," he stated. Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, noted: "There is no question of chasing someone from Paris. Not at all. No one will be forced to leave, no one will be forced to go to the other end of France."

She stated that this was a long-standing problem "completely unrelated to the Olympic Games" and asked the government to prepare a long plan. "Paris will continue to play its role, but it will be the state that will solve it. For years I asked the government to come up with a plan and they didn't," she continued.

"Setting up reception centres and finding accommodation for the homeless and migrants outside Paris was a solution, but it had to be properly organised and required state support for local authorities and the homeless who voluntarily relocated in their areas."

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Emmanuel Grégoir, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of city planning, stated: "The housing of the homeless and migrants depends on the state. We're doing our part and we've opened places that offer urgent housing to particularly vulnerable people, including families with young children, but we can't do it alone and that's not our job. It is wrong to propose a mass expulsion of people from Paris before the Olympic Games."

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