The Mayor of Orléans Serge Grouard (former LR) denounced on Monday, March 25th the arrival of migrants in his city who, according to him, were being “displaced” to the provinces “secretly” to make room for Paris before the Olympics this summer. “Orléans is not meant to welcome Paris’ crack hill,” warned Serge Grouard, stating that around 500 homeless migrants have been transferred from the capital to his city without being informed by the state services for almost a year.
“Due to lack of official information, I gathered some data from associations and the social services center in the city of Orléans,” he explained during a press conference. “It is thus confirmed that every three weeks, a bus arrives in Orléans from Paris, carrying between 35 and 50 people. This system seems to have been operating since May 2023,” the official noted. “All of this is being done secretly,” he deplored.
According to Serge Grouard, due to lack of emergency accommodations available, these individuals “are housed in hotels for about three weeks” and then it becomes difficult to know “what happens to them”. He mentioned that other cities are also affected, including Strasbourg and Angers, citing the press and some associations. The Loiret prefecture had not responded by late afternoon when contacted.
Floriane Varieras, deputy to the ecologist mayor of Strasbourg, responsible for an inclusive city, mentioned that there are thirteen regional reception centers throughout France, including one in Geispolsheim (Bas-Rhin), a nearby municipality. “We were not consulted at all, neither for the establishment nor informed about the population that would pass through. This is where I agree with the mayor of Orléans, the somewhat opaque side of what is happening,” she stated. She expressed understanding for territorial solidarity, but highlighted the lack of information and additional resources in the territories which complicates rather than solves the problem.
For several months, associations have been denouncing a “social cleansing” of the Paris region, gradually emptied of its most vulnerable populations living on the streets in preparation for the Olympics. In an effort to relieve the congestion of the Île-de-France region, the government instructed prefects in March 2023 to create new “temporary regional reception centers”. The idea is to establish around 500 places in these new structures in all regions, except for Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, and Corsica, to “direct individuals taken care of during shelter operations conducted in Île-de-France”.
