French police were undone Wednesday by more than 1,250 people from an immigrant camp by a canal in the northern suburbs of Paris in Aubervilliers, the government announced on Twitter.
Many immigrants are believed to have arrived in France after fleeing violence and poverty in the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan.
The local prefecture tweeted that more than 1,000 men in addition to 250 members of the family circle were displaced in the operation. Local media reported that up to 1,500 more people lived in the camp.
The Le Parisien newspaper reported that they had been taken on buses to shelters in the Paris region and had coronavirus tests as a precautionary measure.
Read more: Closure: Migrants in France pandemic and police abuse
Send Facebook Twitter Google – Whatsapp Tumblr Linkedin Stumble Digg reddit Newsvine
Permalian https://p.dw.com/p/3bmbj
‘Lasitude, despair’
The Aubervilliers is the last of the dozens to be built in northern Paris since the closure of a massive informal camp in the port city of Calais in 2016.
Police dismantle migrants’ tents and transfer their population to shelters, only to allow new settlements to appear elsewhere soon after. Local government officials warned that such camps would not be tolerated, while humanitarian teams called on the government to assist permanent housing responses for migrants sleeping on the streets.
Louis Barda, of the NGO Medicins du Monde, said Wednesday’s operation was a cycle that is often repeated.
“There’s tiredness, despair, this has been going on for almost five years,” he said. “The state cannot obtain (migrants) in a dignified manner.”
When the closure of the coronavirus in France came into force in March, the police transferred migrants from Paris camps to gyms, hotels and other accommodations. But after restrictions were lifted in May, many were temporarily found on the streets.
Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights ordered France to pay damages to three asylum seekers who spent months on the streets, claiming they had been “victims of degrading treatment.”