Over the past year, 10 temporary accommodation centers across France have welcomed more than 3,600 homeless people from Paris. In Occitania, this airlock is located in Toulouse and, as elsewhere, its operation and connection to the Olympic Games raises questions.
487 people joined Occitanie
According to our information, the situation in Toulouse is similar as of April 2023. The city is one of the 10 centers of temporary accommodation existing in France. In Occitania, according to the prefecture he contacted La Dépêche du Midi, 487 people joined this reception in Toulouse, which has 50 seats. Nationwide, more than 3,800 people left Paris and its region for the provinces.
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This center aims to temporarily house homeless people in the Paris region. Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse, confirms Dispatch after being warned about the situation by the prefect in April 2023. However, he calls for a reasonable acceptance of these people who are only passing through the Haute-Garonne. “There is a distribution across the departments of Occitanie because Toulouse already has many problems in this area,” explains the mayor, who says he had no further information on the subject in 2024.
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An operator was left in Toulouse to run this airlock. This is Soliha, who did not wish to respond to our requests. According to the prefecture, the association is responsible for welcoming, supporting, feeding and transporting people to the departments of the region in close coordination with the various government services, then liaising with the various prefects to continue this individualized monitoring. Monitoring contested by many associative actors. “We even wonder if people know what they’re getting into,” the Abbé Pierre Occitanie Foundation tells us.
The refugee learns on the bus that he is leaving for Toulouse
A situation perfectly illustrated by the testimony of a Sudanese refugee who passed through Toulouse. “The police arrived at 7am and told us, ‘Get on the bus’, we had no choice,” Ali told AFP. This Sudanese refugee was sent to the outskirts of Toulouse and apparently learned on the way that he was going to the Pink City. On the spot he was brought into this famous airlock. A few hours after his arrival, he learned from the head of the center that he could not stay more than four days.
An example of a situation confirmed to us by the Abbé Pierre Occitanie Foundation: “Some people have already returned to Paris since their visit to Toulouse.” This is the case of Ali, who four days after his arrival in Toulouse was already back in an unsanitary squat near Paris. “The organization is very opaque,” said an association source. Many associations in France condemn not only the lack of consultation with locals, but also the silence of the authorities.
“Prepare Paris for the arrival of tourists”
The dismantled site near Paris, where Ali lived with 500 other people, was located near the village of future Olympic athletes in Seine-Saint-Denis. While no connection to the Olympics has been officially stated, these testimonies and several sources confirm that these movements of people are organized with the event in mind. The Revers de la Medal collective, which brings together some 80 associations, has warned of the fate of people on the street whose makeshift camps will be liquidated at a greater rate as the Olympics approach. “It’s clear that since the arrival of the Games there has been a distancing from Ile-de-France, a social purge to prepare the city for the arrival of tourists,” testifies Jhila Prentis, a “United migrants” volunteer in Vitry-on. Seine.
The controversy continues to swell to the point that Guillaume Kasbarian had to address the assembly on the subject this week.
The minister responsible for housing confirmed that Ile-de-France’s implementation of this “relaxation policy” was “without any connection” to the Olympics.