Around a hundred migrants, mainly unaccompanied minors, were evacuated on the morning of Wednesday March 20 from a camp set up in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, according to associations, under a prefectural decree particularly evoking a significant risk in terms of of security.
“A dry expulsion without shelter is underway,” said the collective Le Revers de la Medal, which brings together some eighty French associations and NGOs, as well as Canadian organizations defending social rights. “They are 15, 16 years old… There are around a hundred unaccompanied minors,” he said.
The evacuation ended around 10 a.m., according to the collective. “We are going to contact the Defender of Rights [Claire Hédon] and are considering filing a complaint against the Ile-de-France regional prefecture,” he adds, denouncing “mistreatment”.
The prefectural decree taken on Tuesday considers that since the settlement of these migrants in October in the tunnel at the end of rue Villiot and in the surrounding area, their presence has intensified. These tents “not only hinder the movement of pedestrians and other non-motorized vehicles, but present a significant risk in terms of personal safety, to the extent that, in the event of flooding of the Seine, the occupants could find themselves trapped by the waters and drown,” justifies the order. There is, moreover, “a risk of accidental fire,” he continues.
For several months, associations have denounced a “social cleansing” of the Ile-de-France region, gradually emptied, according to them, of its most precarious populations living on the streets in preparation for the 2024 Olympic Games (from July 26 to August 11). The authorities, for their part, argue that one hundred and twenty thousand people are accommodated every night due to the emergency in Ile-de-France – places mainly reserved for adults or minors accompanied by at least one of their parents.