About 150 to 200 young migrants, accompanied by associations, including Utopia56, settled on the evening of Tuesday April 4 in a disused school in the 16th arrondissement of Paris to demand shelter, noted an AFP journalist. These unaccompanied minors (MNA), most of the time living on the street, took over this school around 9:30 p.m., in a few minutes. The same premises had already been briefly occupied by migrants at the initiative of Utopia56 in 2021.
For Nikolai Posner, these young people are under police pressure when they try to set up camps, hence the use of squats. “The goal is to stay until we are offered a solution. We came here two years ago, we had solutions in the evening.he told AFP. “We ask that these young people be accompanied by social assistance for children”, the time that their appeals are examined with a children’s judge, he explains. The association campaigns for the presumption of minority to be declared in French law, so that young migrants are declared minors upon arrival until the judge decides.
“Despite our repeated requests, the prefecture of Île-de-France as well as the Secretary of State for Child Protection, Charlotte Caubel, continually refuse the establishment of a space for exchange and consultation with actors in the field, in order to put in place long-lasting and constructive solutions”, write in a press release the associations which organized this occupation. These associations, Utopia 56, TIMMY, TARA and the Midis du MIE, “require multidisciplinary support” young immigrants, “adapted to their individual situation and in stable accommodation in Île-de-France”.