NGOs accuse French authorities of 'social cleansing' over migrant evictions

Charities have accused French authorities of accelerated "social cleansing" after hundreds more people, mostly irregular asylum seekers, were evicted from squats in Paris ahead of the Olympics.

On Wednesday, police broke up two migrant camps in the north of Paris where a total of some 230 people had been squatting, according to the Medecins du Monde NGO.

The NGO said that such actions were multiplying as the July 26 Olympics start date approaches.

"They've really accomplished a massive social cleansing just before the Olympics start," said Paul Alauzy at Medecins du Monde, who is also a spokesman for "Revers de la Medaille" (The Medal's Flipside).

Revers de la Medaille is an association denouncing the games's social impact, especially the removal of migrants and other homeless people from the streets of the capital.

Jamal Ahmed, a refugee from Sudan, said he has been living under a bridge in the Flandres district in northern Paris for the past two years, except for one month after he was taken by coach to a shelter in Ris-Orangis, some 40 kilometres away.

"But then they told me go get out, so I came back here because I knew there was space," the 30-year-old said.

Already on Tuesday police had cleared another squat, along the Ourcq canal in northeastern Paris, of up to 250 people, associations said.

The authorities told them they could be taken to a shelter on the outskirts of the capital, or take a 5-hour coach ride to Besancon, in eastern France.

"Most picked the shelter," said Charlotte Kwantes, spokesperson for Utopia 56, an association helping irregular refugees.

'I haven't hurt anyone'

Wednesday's police intervention went off "quietly", associations said, saying city services removed the tents in the camp after their owners were gone.

French authorities have denied any link between such evacuations and the Olympics, but associations noted that access for migrants to shelters far from the capital had suddenly become much easier.

"Previously there were drastic conditions for admission," observed Alauzy.

"But now, just before the Games, everybody can go," he said. "They're offering temporary solutions to be sure that the streets of Paris are cleared."

Some expelled refugees declined the offer of a shelter, instead leaving on foot, carrying sleeping bags and their other belongings with them in plastic bags, an AFP journalist saw.

They included Hassem, 27, also from Sudan, who said that he didn't get on the bus, "because in two weeks' time they'll throw us back out on the streets".

He asked: "Why are we being removed? I haven't hurt anyone, I haven't caused any problems. I just need a stable place to stay."