A line of men has formed at Aubervilliers, north of Paris, when it is not yet light. The air is barely a few degrees. In a row of onions, there are several hundred to wait. Some have been waiting for an hour already, when the first buses arrive. With a bag on their back, a blanket under their arms or their empty hands, they advance, guided by police officers equipped with hygiene masks. Most will be dispatched to around fifteen gymnasiums in Ile-de-France. A little further, at the same time, families, with 93 children, were evacuated.
In total, the regional prefecture has sheltered 1,436 people, Tuesday, January 28, during the sixtieth operation to dismantle a migrant camp in Paris, since 2015. According to estimates by France Terre d asylum (FTDA), carried out the day before, between 900 and 1,850 people – mostly asylum seekers – were at Porte d’Aubervilliers in unworthy conditions, on the edge of the ring road, in tents or in makeshift huts , sometimes for more than a year.
“I go to school while I sleep outside. I can’t shower in the morning, I’ve been wearing the same pants for three months and last night my phone was stolen from me “
Kamel (all first names have been changed) says that he has known almost only the street since his arrival in France in early 2018. As he is about to get on a bus, this young Sudanese man hands the receipt from the prefecture, who attests to his refugee status, obtained nine months ago. Kamel also shows the French lessons he put in a filing cabinet. With refugee status, he is entitled to 200 hours of language. “I go to school while I sleep outside. I can’t shower in the morning, I’ve been wearing the same pants for three months and last night my phone was stolen from me “, he lists.
A Sudanese refugee explains that he has lived on the street for two years. Afghan asylum seekers worry that they are … https://t.co/bYqdXPA8RN
“A place until the end of winter”
Next to Kamel, a group of Tibetans is worried: “Are we going to be separated? “, they ask. One of them, Yang, says he arrived in France about a year ago, but he has only been sleeping Porte d’Aubervilliers for a few weeks. He was previously in a Yvelines camp, near Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a place known to regularly house Tibetan asylum seekers. “We came here to try to have a place to sleep”says Yang.
The evacuation operation has started at Porte d’Aubervilliers. Between 900 and 1800 people live in tents for most… https://t.co/48f0f4FrJQ
The apprehension is palpable among the migrants that morning. A group of Afghans are trying to find out if they will be taken away from Paris. Some have appointments in the prefecture to honor to register their asylum request. “You will have a new appointment”, reassures a member of the FTDA team, present. Farat is more annoyed. According to Dublin II regulation, a refugee has the obligation to apply for asylum in the first country where he has been checked. However, Farat is “dublinized” in Finland and he wants to know what he risks by getting on a bus. He is afraid of being transferred to this country, where he was first registered in Europe. “We will check your papers but I think you will have a place until the end of winter”, says the association manager.
Strategy of “complete liberation of spaces”
Beginning of November, 1,600 people had already been evacuated and sheltered at Porte de la Chapelle and in Saint-Denis. Of these, 1,200 were seeking asylum and “300 voluntarily left the gymnasiums in which they had been sheltered”, said the regional prefect Michel Cadot, suggesting that these were people who were not entitled to care.
The regional prefect said he wished to see, in the long term, the evacuees redirected to suitable accommodation, “Within two and a half months, not more”. He intends that 60% of them will be directed outside Ile-de-France. The Paris police chief, Didier Lallement, defended his strategy of “Complete liberation of spaces” and maintaining a police presence to prevent relocation.
“You will see that at Porte de la Chapelle, the grounds are completely vacant”, declared Mr. Lallement to the press, while recognizing phenomena of “Offsets”. A new camp has indeed reconstituted Porte de la Villette, which today numbers between 300 and more than 500 people, according to FTDA estimates. “There is a lack of places for asylum seekers, say again Dominique Versini, deputy mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, in charge in particular of the fight against exclusion. There is a desire to show that we are not a welcoming land. It damages people “.
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