Alexandre Chauveau, edited by Laura Laplaud / Photo credit: MUSTAFA YALCIN / ANADOLU AGENCY / ANADOLU AGENCY VIA AFP
About 150 migrants have settled since the beginning of August on the forecourt of the Town Hall in the capital, to claim housing. One year before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the situation of extreme precariousness worries elected officials, concerned about the situation but also about the image of the city.
The images are making the rounds on social media. Dozens of migrants have been camping for three weeks on the sidewalks in the heart of the capital, in the City Hall district, to claim housing. The situation of extreme precariousness worries elected officials, concerned about the situation but also about the image of Paris one year from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
A “humanitarian disaster”
The right-wing opposition in Paris speaks of a “humanitarian disaster”. She accuses the town hall of not doing what is necessary, even if the responsibility for sheltering lies with the State. “The State must take matters into its own hands. It has not done so for three weeks. In the meantime, the town hall has tools, it knows very well how to use them when necessary. moralizing speeches and when the migrants are on its Parisian territory, it does nothing”, gets carried away Aurélien Véron, spokesperson for the group Les Républicains, centrists and independents at the Council of Paris.
“There is no call for air”
For its part, the town hall appeals to the State, which it accuses of negligence. She calls for an emergency plan for the accommodation of these migrants and refuses to be accused of causing a call for migratory air. “It is not by opening an emergency accommodation center at Porte d’Aubervilliers that the person who is in Eritrea will say ‘well, they have opened an emergency accommodation center at Porte d’Aubervilliers , I’m going to cross half the world at the risk of my life ‘, that does not exist! There is no call for air!”, Launches Léa Filoche, deputy to the town hall of Paris in charge of solidarity.
Faced with the degraded situation, the Île-de-France prefecture highlights the saturation of accommodation centers, but promises that a solution will be found by the end of the week to evacuate the migrant camp and study at the the situations of the persons concerned on a case-by-case basis.