The police evacuated, this Tuesday morning, the migrant camp installed under the aerial metro of La Chapelle, in Paris. For Marisol Touraine it is a “health requirement”.
A migrant camp in the 18th arrondissement of Paris was evacuated by the police on Tuesday around 6.30am. Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs, told France Info that “camps are places which, in terms of epidemics and in terms of health, are always risks first and foremost for those who live there. We must ensure and ensure that each of those who were there is quickly rehoused in good conditions ”.
The 350 or so migrants, installed under the aerial metro at La Chapelle, had been warned by the posting, over the weekend, of a prefectural decree asking them to leave the premises within 48 hours. Dozens of police and gendarmes were mobilized for the operation. Traffic was cut off around the camp.
A risk of an epidemic of dysentery
For the minister, this evacuation “meets a health requirement”. The camp had recently experienced cases of scabies and a risk of an epidemic of dysentery was to be feared, according to the prefect. Yet cleaned once a week by the Town Hall, hygiene conditions had deteriorated.
Originally from Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia or even Egypt, migrants have been increasing in number since February, when women and children, arriving from southern Italy, came to “grow” the camp, making the situation critical.
Accommodation proposals
As of Thursday, the Paris police prefect, Bernard Boucault, assured that “individualized accommodation proposals” would be made. Several associations including Emmaüs and France Terre d’Asile had spoken to the migrants to determine which accommodation would be suitable for their situation.
“Women with children come under the city’s social assistance to children” and the 160 people seeking asylum come from reception centers or Cada, then detailed the prefect. 200 others would be “in transit” on the territory while waiting to be able to leave for Great Britain or the Nordic countries, will be offered “temporary shelter” from three days to a week. The city of Paris should also accommodate 74 people, including minors, in hotels.
The president of the France Terre d’Asile association, Pierre Henry explains on Twitter that “the camp evacuation operation (…) is a humanitarian operation, access to rights, to asylum requests”.
The operation to evacuate the La Chapelle camp is a humanitarian operation, access to rights, to the asylum request # right #
– Pierre Henry (@ pierrehenry75) June 2, 2015
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