Migrants camp on Paris streets


Ingrid Melander, Reuters
October 28, 2016 11:50pm


The number of migrants sleeping rough on the streets of Paris has risen by at least a third since the start of the week when the "Jungle" shanty town in Calais was evacuated, officials say.

Along the bustling boulevards and a canal in a northeastern corner of Paris, hundreds of tents have been pitched by migrants - mostly Africans who say they are from Sudan - with cardboard on the ground to try and insulate them from the autumn chill.

While the presence of migrants there is not new, it has grown substantially this week, Colombe Brossel, Paris deputy mayor in charge of security issues, told Reuters.

"We have seen a big increase since the start of the week. Last night, our teams counted 40 to 50 new tents there in two days," Brossel said, adding there was now a total of 700 to 750.

This means there are some 2000-2500 sleeping in the area, up from around 1500 a few days before, she said.

After years as serving as an illegal base camp for migrants trying to get to Britain, the Jungle at Calais was finally bulldozed this week and the more than 6000 residents of the ramshackle camp near the English channel were relocated to shelters around France.

France's asylum chief Pascal Brice said the arrivals in Paris did not mean there had been a wholesale movement from the Jungle to the capital.

Between the Stalingrad and Jaures metro stations in Paris, migrants who spent the night camped out on the median strip of a major road, with traffic passing on either side, had scattered on Friday morning, many carrying their tents while police patrolled the centre of the boulevard.

Migrants and officials said police checked ID papers and asylum requests and later let the migrants return to the central strip of the avenue where they put their tents back up.

Authorities said the newcomers did not come only from Calais. Others did but had arrived before the dismantlement of the camp.

The city of Paris has plans to open two migrant centres but they would only have a total capacity of fewer than 1000 beds.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said later on Friday that the Paris makeshift camp would be dismantled in the coming days.
Migrants camp on Paris streets | Townsville Bulletin
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