France Evicts Thousands of Migrants from Paris Ahead of 2024 Olympics. The government, led by President Emmanuel Macron, has begun evicting thousands of homeless migrants from the capital ahead of the Olympics, scheduled between July 26 and August 11, according to a New York Times report on Thursday.
Authorities are directing mostly single male immigrants to board buses to cities like Lyon or Marseille, with assurances of housing upon arrival. However, many have ended up on unfamiliar streets without the promised accommodations or facing potential deportation. One immigrant, evicted from an abandoned cement factory near the Olympic Village, told The New York Times, “We were expelled because of the Olympic Games.” Another immigrant from the Central African Republic mentioned, “They give you a random ticket. If it’s a ticket to Orleans, you go to Orleans.”
The French government had not commented on the evictions at the time of the report’s publication.
In April, police conducted a large-scale eviction at France’s largest squat in southern Paris, clearing a makeshift camp at an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine. This camp had housed around 450 migrants. Images of the eviction spread across social media, showing about 300 people, including young men and several women with children, calmly leaving the camp with their belongings.
France is home to about 7 million immigrants, making up approximately 10.3 percent of the population, with numbers steadily rising since 2000. Immigration reportedly costs France 40 billion euros annually, though experts argue that the true costs are difficult to calculate.
