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Paris evicts homeless ahead of Olympic Games

Updated Jul 11, 2024, 6:45am EDT
Europe
Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters
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Thousands of homeless people, many of whom are reportedly immigrants have been removed from Paris by the French government ahead of the Olympic Games.

President Emmanuel Macron wants the Games to showcase the city to the world, but the Olympic Village is located in a poor suburb where some one in three people are thought to be immigrants, The New York Times reported. Police have evicted around 5,000 people, mainly single men, encouraging them to board buses to other cities.

They promised us housing,” one migrant told the Times, but instead the migrants were screened for deportation or deposited in unfamiliar cities, many with no shelter.

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The government denied that the clearance is connected to the Olympics, but a leaked email from one official said the goal was to “identify people on the street in sites near Olympic venues.”

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