Last year, the French government expelled nearly 5,000 homeless migrants from Paris in anticipation of the 2024 Summer Olympics. Writing The New York Times. They were promised housing elsewhere, but many ended up living on the streets in foreign countries or facing deportation.

According to the publication, people are taken on buses to cities such as Lyon and Marseille and placed in special shelters. Homeless people live there for up to three weeks, during which time they are checked to see if they meet the criteria for asylum. People with this right can get long-term housing while their applications are processed. However, up to 60% of homeless migrants cannot find housing, and some are deported.

“They give you a random ticket,” Omar Alamin, a migrant from the Central African Republic who was riding one of the buses, told The New York Times. “If the ticket is to Orleans, then you go to Orleans.”

The French government said the evictions were part of a “voluntary program” during a housing shortage in Paris and denied any connection to the Olympics to “identify street dwellers near venues” and relocate them ahead of the Games.

One of the reasons for the evictions is that shelters have no room for the 100,000 homeless people living in and around Paris, the newspaper reported. Authorities opened 10 temporary shelters across the country last year to address the problem.

The Olympic Village itself was built in one of Paris’ poorest suburbs, Seine-Saint-Denis, where about a third of the population is immigrant, the document said, the highest proportion in the country.

Previously, The Guardian also reported on the relocation of homeless people in Paris and its suburbs. WritePolice have also cleared the French capital of prostitutes and drug addicts, according to the publication. 12,500 people have been expelled from Paris since April last year, according to the publication.