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Is everyone welcome at the Paris Olympics?

Lisa Louis in Paris
June 14, 2024

In Paris, authorities are evicting homeless people, including refugees, to the provinces ahead of the upcoming Summer Olympics. Aid organizations have called it "social cleansing."

https://p.dw.com/p/4gmzX

Ali Salim, a homeless Sudanese refugee, has lived in Paris, France for over 10 years. He lost his job as a construction work after breaking both of his ankles and has been unable to secure a new residency permit or social housing.

But Salim has spent the last month in a hotel in Orleans against his will. That's because French authorities have spent the year ahead of the upcoming Summer Olympics evicting homeless people living in Paris to other provinces.

Aid organizations have leveled accusations of "social cleansing" on the French government, who deny that the transplant of homeless people is connected to the Olympics. 

Learn more of the challenges refugees like Salim face and how authorities aren't doing enough to support homeless people like him.