Paris: families living on the streets sleep in front of the Prefecture

By: fawda - September 2nd, 2020  Filed under: News

After a month of alerts to the services of the Paris City Hall and the Ile-de-France Prefecture remained unanswered, 107 exiled families living on the streets settled on Monday August 31 on the forecourt of the City Hall to put an end to this unworthy situation. The objective: to obtain permanent accommodation for all of them.

Since 2015, the public authorities have shown their inability to provide a dignified welcome for exiled people arriving in Paris, in defiance of their legal obligations. Among these people are many families and single women whose time spent on the streets is constantly increasing before they are offered care.

Every evening since 2017, the association Utopia 56 has been trying as best it can to make up for these state and municipal shortcomings via a network of solidarity-based shelters. This network is made up of about 250 people living in the Ile-de-France region who take in single women, families and couples living on the streets. [Read More]

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Paris: Eviction from the Saint-Denis Canal migrant camp

By: fawda - July 29th, 2020  Filed under: News

Nearly 1,500 migrants were “sheltered” on Wednesday when they were expelled from the Aubervilliers camp north of Paris. The associations fear the reformation of a camp within a few weeks. They denounce the repeated dismantling without any real solution.

The migrant camp located along the Saint-Denis canal in Aubervilliers, in the north of Paris, was evicted on Wednesday 29 July. As early as 6am, a large police presence squared the area, where nearly 1,500 people were settled.

“This operation is the logical continuation of all the operations we have been carrying out for several months,” Paris police prefect Didier Lallement, who was present at the scene, told reporters. “I wanted to evacuate the camps on the outskirts of Paris and make sure that migrants do not gather in the camps for the entire Paris police force and the three neighbouring departments” he added. [Read More]

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Paris: At the Saint-Denis canal camp, migrants are “left to die”

By: fawda - July 28th, 2020  Filed under: News

This Wednesday, July 29th, the camp of the Saint-Denis canal in Aubervilliers should be dismantled by the authorities announced associations helping migrants. The camp welcomes more than 1200 people in extremely precarious conditions. An eviction which is nothing new, the “sheltering” or “evacuations”, in the words of the authorities, is repeated tirelessly in France. A problem that the authorities refuse to tackle.

Between Aubervilliers and Saint Denis, along the canal, Brahim comes out of his tent crushed by the sun. He explains that he has been there for 3 months, with his wife and his newborn baby. Like the others, he lines up in spite of the heat to get antibacterial hand gel, masks, T-shirts and a bit of shampoo. An aid distributed by the association Utopia 56, Brahim, desperate, searches the five boxes of old clothes lying on the quayside: “this place is not possible for my child” he explains, “it’s just not possible. Is this Europe? France is like Africa?! My life is shattered. “The rule: one health kit, one T-shirt, one pair of pants per person, no more. Everyone has to be able to help themselves. In the end, nearly 150 people take advantage of the distribution, but soon the stocks leave. There are only too big pants left. [Read More]

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Paris: Dramatic growth of informal migrant camp at Aubervilliers

By: fawda - July 23rd, 2020  Filed under: News

In just one month, the number of migrants living in the Aubervilliers camp in the Paris region has more than doubled, from 400 in mid-June to around 1,000 in mid-July. While arrivals are expected to continue over the next few weeks, NGOs denounce the failure of the French reception system.

In the Aubervilliers camp, the number of migrants has more than doubled in just one month. In mid-June, aid groups estimated that there were around 400 people living under the Stains bridge along the Saint-Denis canal in the north of Paris. In mid-July, France Land of Asylum (FTDA) said it counted some 1,000 migrants in the camp.

“And by August, there will be at least 1,500 of them,” predicted FTDA Director General Pierre Henry. “It’s always the same thing, we’ve been going in circles for years,” he said. [Read More]

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