It is 6:30 in the morning. One sunny morning in Paris during the end of summer. In the Stalingrad Métro station in northeastern Paris, many migrants, mostly men, sleep crowded under a bridge. Some people sleep on cardboard and old mattresses behind a smelly fence, while others stay awake by the side of the street.
News is going around that the government buses will come soon to pick them up. Some people are excited and hoping to be given a place to live. However, many others are unsure and scared because they think they might have to leave Paris.
Over the last few months, the French government has been trying to move homeless people from Paris to other areas in the country. They want to lessen the strain on emergency shelters in the capital city. Every week, the government takes about 50 to 150 people to different places in France.
Even though the government says it is not connected, some groups and officials think the Olympics are why the relocation plan was started.
Obsa, a 31-year-old political refugee from Ethiopia, told CNN that he heard that someone was coming to take them today, but he doesn’t know where they are being taken to. He wants to use a fake name because he is worried about getting punished.
Obsa went to France in 2017. He traveled from Ethiopia to Sudan and Libya, and then he crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.
He has a job in Paris, but he can’t find a permanent place to live because it’s too expensive and there aren’t many cheap options available. Obsa had been staying in emergency housing at a hotel, but they told him to leave once his wife came to stay with him. They said no. They told us that they didn’t have enough space for my wife.
Obsa is not the only one who has had that experience. Before the upcoming Olympic Games next year, hotels in Paris are cancelling their agreements with the government for emergency accommodations. This is being done to make room for the large number of tourists expected to arrive. According to Paul Alauzy from Medecins Du Monde, an organization that helps homeless migrants, this is happening.
In 2022, about 50,000 individuals without homes were staying in hotels every night in the Ile-de-France area, which includes Paris. This information comes from the Federation of Solidarity Actors, a group that brings together local associations and charitable organizations. This year, around 5,000 hotel spots that were available for people have been canceled, according to BFMTV, a news source connected to CNN. This might be one reason why refugees like Obsa and his wife ended up homeless.
The Paris government said to CNN that around 2,000 emergency housing spots were lost, but they found other ways to make up for the canceled hotel rooms.
However, the shortage of hotel rooms is not the main issue for homeless people in France. Approximately half of the people without homes in the country are focused in the Ile-de-France area. This region offers more resources like charities, work options, and personal relationships to help them.
The Ministry of Housing says that out of the more than 200,000 homeless people sleeping in the country every night, 100,000 of them are in the Ile-de-France. In simple words, there are not enough places for people to stay safe in Paris when there is an emergency.
While speaking with CNN, many French police officers come near and surround the place. Several big white buses park and stop traffic on the street. One bus says “Bordeaux” and another says “Marseille. ” These cities are very far from the capital.
Members of local charity groups and the police in Paris speak with migrants who seem confused and unsure about what is going on.
The authorities use a loudspeaker to tell the migrants they can get on a bus to go to Marseille or Bordeaux, where they will have a place to stay. People who want to live in the capital are encouraged to prove that they have a job that will last for a long time.
But still, they may not have a place to live. “I am unable to go because I have a job contract for one year,” said Obsa, who is employed as an IT administrator. “I need to stay in the Ile-de-France region, at least for some time. ”
Since April, around 1,800 homeless people, most of whom are migrants, have been relocated from Paris. This information was given to CNN by the Interministerial Delegation for Accommodation and Access to Housing (a government group that includes the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Housing).
According to the Dihal, there are 10 temporary shelters called SAS that have been established in various regions of the country to accommodate people who are arriving in France but not in Paris. Each SAS can hold a maximum of 50 individuals.
Yann Manzi, who started a French organization called Utopia 56 that helps homeless migrants, said that all of this is happening during an important time when preparations for the Olympic Games are also taking place. He also mentioned that the government is unable to handle the situation on the streets of Paris and continues to neglect the thousands of people who have arrived in the country without any support.
According to the government, France got 155,773 requests for safety in 2022. The Minister of Interior Gerald Darmanin said in a few TV interviews that France will gladly accept political refugees. However, France will not allow any migrants to enter illegally unless they are in danger in their homeland. According to the government, about 20,000 people who came to the country illegally were sent back in 2022.
During a TV interview on Sunday, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, said that France is contributing its share in assisting migrants who come to Europe. This includes spending about 2 billion euros every year on temporary housing for homeless people. But he thinks the country can’t help everyone who is sad.
The Dihal told CNN that the relocation plan is not related to the upcoming Olympic Games. They said the plan is meant to reduce the pressure on the Ile-de-France area and provide better support for homeless people in other regions.
A representative from Paris 2024 told CNN that the relocation plan is not related to the ongoing Games or Rugby World Cup in France.
“The problem of providing emergency housing in the Ile-de-France region is not new and has become worse in the past few months. This is a concerning situation, even though the region will be hosting the Paris 2024 Games next year,” stated the spokesperson.
Manzi, from Utopia 56, believes the idea of moving people to new locations could be a good plan, but the issue is that the shelters in those areas will only provide housing for three weeks, as stated by the cities responsible for hosting them, and it is unclear what will happen afterward.
In the SAS, certain individuals get assistance in finding housing and work that they qualify for according to their legal status. However, this support doesn’t always work for everyone. Manzi said that about 25 to 30% of people return to living on the streets. “They reach the end of these three weeks without finding any solution, so they end up back on the sidewalks. ”
In Bordeaux, a city chosen to host a SAS, the percentage is as high as 40%. “They vanish,” said Harmonie Lecerf-Meunier, the deputy mayor of Bordeaux, in response to CNN. “We think they return to Paris. ”
Recently, about 17% of the people who were sent to the SAS have left, as reported by the Dihal.
The second issue is that there are not enough places for migrants to stay temporarily in the regions they are being moved to. So, people will be out on the streets again, but not in Paris. We take them out of Paris and put them on other streets. we are just moving the problem around, without fixing it,” said Brice.
In a statement in May 2023, the government said the housing minister asked local officials and organizations to help create these centers. However, the mayors of Lyon and Bordeaux, where two centers are located, told CNN that they were not consulted by the government. Lecerf-Meunier from Bordeaux said, “We discovered this information one day before. ”
Similarly, Sandrine Runel, a deputy mayor in Lyon, said to CNN that the government acted quickly to help in Paris and the Ile-de-France, but they didn’t make sure that the necessary resources were available in other places. She said that the Olympics are an excuse to send people to different regions without considering or checking if the regions can handle the additional people.
Brice said it’s hard to agree on whether or not to welcome foreigners, and this is especially true for migrants. The government has decided not to discuss it, and I think they made a mistake.
Brice thinks that if France shares reception duties between different areas, it could provide better care and help to the many migrants who come to the country each year. This would be helpful as long as it is done well. Brice said that in order for the system to function properly, it needs to have enough money and be well overseen. The most important thing is that everyone involved, like activists and cities hosting migrants, need to know and be actively part of making plans.
Brice said, “If the government doesn’t take responsibility and provide the necessary resources, they might ruin the only effective solution for welcoming foreigners in this country. ”
In the homeless camp under Stalingrad Métro station, there is a man named Abdullatif who is 29 years old and from Afghanistan. He appears to be feeling very worried. I heard that we have to leave Paris, but I really don’t want to go. “I am excited to begin my electrician training and I must remain in this place,” said Abdullatif, who preferred not to share his full name. He chooses to stay in Paris.
However, we are not sure what will happen to those who choose to remain in the capital. “Alauzy, from Medecins Du Monde, said that if you don’t accept what they give you, you will be homeless again. ”
Also, when people decide to leave for different areas, they can choose to do so. However, several organizations that are helping with the moving plan told CNN that a lot of the individuals who are migrating are not being given enough information about what they will encounter at their new location before they leave. The mayors of Lyon and Bordeaux agreed with this statement. They said that people came to their cities with a promise of a permanent place to stay, but in reality, there is no guarantee of this after the first three weeks in the local SAS.
Abdullatif and Obsa, as well as other people who chose not to move, are put on a bus named “Paris” without knowing where it will take them.
A few days later, CNN got in touch with Obsa again. He said he didn’t have a home and was staying with a friend in Paris for now. He said that the authorities had once again refused to provide him and his wife with emergency social housing.
They said I don’t belong here, not even in the Ile-de-France area. It’s hard to believe. How can a whole area not have enough room for two people.