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The violent eviction of a migrant camp in Paris

Monday night in Paris the police evacuated with violent methods hundreds of migrants who had just set up a camp in Place de la République. With the help of volunteers, the migrants, most of them originally from Afghanistan, had set up about 500 tents in the center of Paris, but only an hour later the police intervened to remove them, in some cases with people still inside. internal, amid protests from activists and migrants themselves. The police then used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the occupants of the tents, who took refuge in the streets adjacent to the square. According to the humanitarian association “Utopia 56”, about 400 migrants came from the Saint-Denis camp evacuated on 17 November.

The images of the violent eviction, disseminated by newspapers and on social networks, have aroused protests from left-wing parties, but also from those who support the government majority, NGOs and trade unions. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin also wrote on Twitter that he was “shocked” by the images of the eviction. “I have just asked the police chief for a detailed report on what really happened, by noon tomorrow – added Darmanin – I will make the decisions of the case as soon as I have received it”.

The Ministers of Citizenship and Housing, Marlene Schiappa and Emmanuelle Wargon, in a joint statement released on Tuesday, they wrote that migrants should be treated “with humanity and fraternity”. The secretary of the French Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, wrote on Twitter which was “a hunt for misery with batons”, while the spokesman for the Socialists, the deputy Boris Vallaud, he said that “the government is failing in all its duties, starting with that of humanity.”

The prefectures of Paris and Ile-de-France, which managed the eviction, replied that “the establishment of these camps, organized by some associations, was not acceptable”. In the joint communiqué of the prefectures, it is recalled that “all people in need of accommodation are invited to come to the day centers where they are offered solutions suited to their situation”.

November 17 in Saint-Denis had been cleared a large camp with more than 3 thousand migrants, also in this case mainly Afghans. Some of the migrants were then transferred to reception centers or gyms in the Ile-de-France, but since then, according to some humanitarian associations, between 500 and 1000 people have been wandering the streets of the suburbs of Paris.

“They are left behind and invisible – said Maël de Marcellus, Parisian coordinator of the” Utopia 56 “association – but they too need accommodation, especially in the midst of a health crisis”. Law enforcement, second The world, are applying the principle of “zero tolerance” towards migrant camps in the capital, decided by the prefect of the Paris police, Didier Lallement, at the beginning of the year. Since then, many migrants had moved to Saint-Denis.

On Tuesday, the ministers Marlene Schiappa and Emmanuelle Wargon assured that 240 places have been identified by the prefect of the Ile-de-France region in reception centers and emergency accommodation facilities. The two ministers also said that “10 thousand places have been created since 17 October” and that “4,500 additional places for asylum seekers will be financed by the government in 2021”. Delphine Rouilleault, the managing director of France Terre d’Asile, a humanitarian association whose main purpose is to support asylum seekers and defend the right to asylum in France, said that «the shelter of migrants in the Saint -Denis left on the street is urgent, essential, indisputable. The honor of the French Republic is at stake ».

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