Olympic-Level Hypocrisy
The 2024 Olympic Games have sent a very clear message to refugees: you are welcome…under very specific circumstances.
My sister texted me during the opening ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics last week, overcome with emotion at the entrance of the Refugee Olympic Team. It’s hard not to feel emotional at the sight of people who have demonstrated such resilience getting a chance to showcase their immense talent on the world stage. I, too, feel it.
It’s not exactly controversial to note that the Olympic Games bring out some of the best in humanity. However, it has become increasingly obvious that they also bring out some of the worst. The Games are emblematic of capitalist excess and flush with national pride that fails to engage with the massive global inequalities that facilitate some countries’ success at the expense of others. These seemingly contradictory aspects of the Olympics make it difficult for some to fully embrace the spirit of friendly competition and wholesome national pride that nominally underpin the event.
One of the clearest examples of the hypocrisy inherent in the Games is the celebration of the Refugee Olympic Team, especially as the Olympics are hosted on a continent and in a country that has been so openly hostile to migration. The preparation phases of past Games have been dogged by damning allegations of human rights abuses, and the Paris Games have been no different. Ahead of the Olympics, there were numerous credible reports of unhoused populations, particularly immigrants, being bused out of the city. Often, these people were rounded up by police and forced onto buses with no ability to consent and no clear information about what was happening to them. Sometimes, they were promised housing or benefits that did not materialize. Some people were funneled into a government program that seeks to assess their eligibility for asylum and deport them if they are found ineligible, without them consenting to enrollment.
Though the city’s government has claimed that this “redistribution” of migrant populations was planned separately from Olympics preparations in response to limited housing resources, this is demonstrably false. Firstly, a piece in the newspaper L’Équipe uncovered a government official’s email linking the forced relocations to the Games. Secondly, affected people interviewed about the busing indicated that they had no say in where they were moved, and advocates have indicated that many of these people will likely end up back on the street soon since they have not been moved to proper, permanent housing.
The fact that just weeks later, the Refugee Olympic Team entered the opening ceremonies to cheering and applause is an absolute farce. The official Olympics website, without a trace of irony or self-awareness, states, “The Refugee Olympic Team’s participation in the Olympic Games is not only a testament to their resilience and excellence but also sends a powerful message of hope, belonging, and inclusion.”
“Hope, belonging, and inclusion” are not the first three words that come to mind when I think of the bloc that was recently found not to properly investigate credible reports of human rights violations at its borders. Just a few months ago, a French court found that a Senator had defamed the organization SOS Mediteranée by claiming that it was assisting human traffickers, when in reality it is one of the organizations attempting to save people from deliberate neglect and even outright malice by EU countries bordering the Mediterranean.
Given this glaring double standard, it is clear that the world’s message to refugees is that they are welcome and belong…as long as they make for good PR.
