Several hundred migrants set up camp at Place de la République in Paris. – AFP
Several hundred exiles gathered on Thursday and set up tents at Place de la République in Paris, where a previous camp had been violently dismantled by the police in November, sparking a wave of indignation.
Nearly 400 tents were set up in the square, around 6.30 p.m., shortly before the curfew came into effect, with the help of several migrant support associations including Utopia56, already behind the previous installation.
“Without a roof, without sleep, my life is blocked”
On the occasion of the “Nuit de la solidarité”, a census of the homeless, these associations, grouped together in a “collective requisitions”, accompanied migrants “to request their immediate, stable and decent accommodation”, have- they jointly affirmed in a statement. In a relaxed atmosphere and with a discreet police presence, about 300 people were busy on the spot, many women and children originally from Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa.
Among them Safai, a 24-year-old Afghan in France since 2019. “I obtained my refugee status two weeks ago but nothing happens, he explained, I sometimes sleep in the street or I sublets a bed 250 euros ”. “Without roof, without sleep, my life is blocked, I hope that this evening we will find a solution”, adds the young man in front of his red tent. These exiles in the street turn “every evening” to associations “in search of a tent or accommodation, while many citizens open their doors to them every evening”, the latter lamented. “However, it is not up to associations or residents to set up accommodation to cope with the worsening housing crisis, it is up to the State, because it is the law”, they said. added.
An investigation opened into the evacuation in November
“We are coming back to Place de la République because it is a symbolic place and since our last action nothing has changed. We hope to find an accommodation solution for these people and put them to safety. There are mainly families, we hope that the police will use their best judgment, ”declared Kerill Theurillat, Parisian manager of Utopia 56. The evacuation by the police of the tents deployed at Place de la République on 23 November and the violence that took place on the sidelines of their dismantling (use of tear gas, de-encirclement grenades or molested journalist) had aroused strong emotion, even within the government.
The same evening, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had mentioned “shocking images” and requested a “detailed report” from the Paris police chief. The IGPN, the “police of the police”, and the Paris prosecutor’s office had immediately opened an investigation into this violence. The occupants of the Place de la République warned Thursday evening that they would remain “peacefully in place until the shelter of all the homeless people present”.