Inside Paris's latest migrant camp

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

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Families have been seen sleeping on the floor beneath tarpaulin sheets outside the Paris City Hall as they await housing. Nearly 200 migrants, mostly women, children and families, have been gathered on the square in front of the building since August 5 amid a protest organized by the Utopia56 association. The French based humanitarian association claims the move's aim is to find the migrants shelter while condemning the 'increasingly aggressive' expulsions taking place in France since its 2024 Olympic Games.
Images from the scenes show migrants with blankets and their belongings in plastic shopping bags as they sit under blue tarpaulin sheets. 'We will not move until a lasting solution is found,' Nathan Lequeux, coordinator of the Utopia56 association's Paris branch, told InfoMigrants . After nights in front of the town hall, wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags on the ground, the migrants, some of whom are legally resident in France, were seen shouting: 'We want housing! Zero children on the streets!'
The association has been distributing breakfast to the people who had slept outside the city hall as the numbers of migrants began to increase. While some migrants left for work or for meetings in the capital, nearly 150 people remained in the square on Friday. The number had increased to 230 people on Saturday morning. 'We just finished distributing lunch, the temperatures are beginning to rise, and the most vulnerable people are already starting to suffer,' said Lequeux over the weekend.
Among the people present in the square, 'nearly half are children,' he said, with 90 minors present in total. Of the 90 children present, Utopia56 counted 'thirty children under the age of three'. One family - Maria, her husband, and four-month-old daughter had been living on the streets for a month, reported AFP.
'We've had more and more single women in recent months, sometimes between 70 and 90 per evening. Now, it's mostly families,' said Lequeux. 'The numbers fluctuate and depend on how many people are end up on the streets.' There were also 11 unaccompanied minors among the group of migrants on the square, some of whom were young females who had previously been housed by Utopia56.
But during the summer, the housing association loses two-thirds of its volunteers resulting in the closing of one of its main shelters, in Bagnolet, on the evening of August 5. 'Half of our solidarity accommodation area is made up of citizen hosts and it's the same thing for volunteers, they are absent and go on vacation. As a result, we lose around 60 accommodation places every night,' Lequeux explained. This lack of accommodation isn't spoken of 'as often in the summer as there are more children on the streets,' Eleonore Schmitt, a coordinator of the Collective of housing associations, told AFP.
She also blamed budget cuts. 'The elimination of 6,500 accommodation places for asylum seekers, passed in the 2025 Finance Law, is having an impact on the ground.' A spokesperson for Paris City Hall said that it continues to open 'centers in both summer and winter to shelter people and their families.' 'In total, more than 1,000 people under state care are currently sheltering in converted municipal facilities or gymnasiums, in addition to the care of more than 3,000 people with families,' the city hall added Tuesday evening.
It comes after French riot police clashed with migrants and their supporters in March after they cleared a Paris theatre that had been occupied by hundreds of homeless Africans. Violence broke out outside the Gaîté Lyrique – one of the French capital's most historic arts venues – soon after dawn on March 18. Mainly young men had been moving in since last December when the management gave them free tickets to a 'Refugees Welcome in France' conference.
Performances were soon cancelled – losing the theatre thousands in revenue – as makeshift beds were placed around the stage and auditorium. By March 18, there were 446 people living inside illegally, most of them claiming they are minors under the age of 18 who deserve permanent housing. CRS (Republican Security Companies) officers armed with tear gas and batons gathered outside the theatre at 5am, and then moved in at 6am.