00:00It was just before dawn when a team of police cleared this camp outside City Hall in Paris.
00:07About 100 male asylum seekers have been living there for several weeks.
00:12NGOs say the operation is part of a campaign to move migrants off the streets ahead of the Summer Olympics.
00:19The men and boys were asked to get on a bus to be driven to a transit centre outside the capital.
00:25Most of them will probably refuse to go to another city because if they go they will lose their appeal to court.
00:33So what they do is just take their stuff and just move away and settle in another place.
00:40So that's a problem that we've seen around Paris when the Olympics are coming
00:44because all the installations are beginning and they just have nowhere to go.
00:50Police have conducted similar springtime operations in previous years
00:54after allowing migrant camps to remain in the city during the winter months.
00:59City officials say the clearance was security and welfare related and not linked to the upcoming Games.
01:06As many as 15 million visitors are expected in Paris for the Olympics in July.
Comments