Thread: 'Pure madness': Macron's plan to put up thousands of migrants in government

'Pure madness': Macron's plan to put up thousands of migrants in government-bought hotels across France is met with backlash from officials who say their towns can’t cope

French government's plan to turn hotels into migrant shelters has been slammed

President Macron hopes to clear migrants off the streets by the end of this year

He wants all migrants housed while their asylum applications are processed

But officials say their towns would be unable to cope with an influx of migrants


Worried locals in Semeac have even erected a wall outside one of the hotels

By Stewart Paterson For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 09:24 BST, 28 July 2017 | UPDATED: 10:34 BST, 28 July 2017


President Macron has vowed to clear migrants off France's by the end of this year as he stands behind plans to transform 62 cheap hotels into shelters.

In an big to alleviate increasing tensions and to halt the creation of new camps following the destruction of the Jungle in Calais last year, all migrants will be offered housing, said President Macron.

While France has received far fewer the asylum applications when compared to Germany, measures by the German government to tighten its asylum procedures in Calais have worried officials in Paris.

They are braced for an influx in immigration from former French colonies in north and west Africa, who co find it more difficult to gain asylum elsewhere.


President Macron has vowed to clear migrants off France's by the end of this year as he stands behind
plans to transform 62 cheap hotels into shelters.


Shop owners and locals in the town of Semeac, in southern France, have built a 6ft high, 65ft long
concrete wall around a hotel which was due to be turned into a migrant shelter


Residents say they are not opposed to helping those less fortunate, but blasted this project for a lack
of transparency and being situated in a residential area

It comes after more than 40 per cent of France's population backed extremists on the far Left and Right during the recent presidential election.

On July 7 police in Paris rounded up 2,771 migrants sleeping in the streets near to an overcrowded migration centre.

According to charities there, the area is home to a further 800 migrants who arrived this month alone - with the number rising by around 50 a day.


The hotel in Séméac, which can house a maximum of 85 people, is one of 61 properties to be bought
with public money to house migrants (file image)

Authorities in Calais are also trying to prevent around 600 migrants who have returned to Calais from setting up another camp, following the destruction of the Jungle nine months ago.

Officials were accused of using pepper spray to disperse migrants — including on unaccompanied minors.

Speaking on a visit to Orléans in central France yesterday, President Macron pledged to speed up the asylum process for refugees fleeing areas of conflict, while thwarting economic migration.


'For those who are persecuted, for freedom fighters...they must be welcomed on out territory,' said Mr Macron.

'Letting them wander from border to border, that is not what France is about.'

The president also warned: 'No country can take in all the economic migrants.'


Authorities in Calais are also trying to prevent around 600 migrants who have returned to Calais from setting
up another camp


It comes after the destruction of the Jungle last year. Officials were accused of using pepper spray to disperse
migrants — including on unaccompanied minors


The president wants migrants housed while their asylum applications are processed instead of sleeping rough on the sleep

He promised 'worthy' housing for asylum seekers who have spent many months or even years sleeping rough on the streets while their applications were assessed.

But the state's plan to purchase 62 Formule 1 hotels and convert them into shelters that will accommodate around 6,000 homeless people and migrants has been met with controversy.

In the Pyrenees town of Séméac locals have built a wall in front of a hotel to keep out the 80 or so migrants due to move in.

In Bailleul, northern France, police unions slammed plans to place dozens of migrants in the town's Formule 1 hotels as 'pure madness'.



But officials are worried that migrants would use the location to try and stow away in lorries, due to the hotel's
proximity to a motorway.


President Macron pledged to speed up the asylum process for refugees fleeing areas of conflict, while
thwarting economic migration


President Macros on spoke of plans to dispatch officials to Libya and Niger to determine whether migrants
had a genuine claim to asylum

They are worried that migrants would use the location to try and stow away in lorries, due to the hotel's proximity to a motorway.

Michel Lebouc, the Left-wing mayor of Maganville, northwest of Paris, said he was 'scandalised' to on find out plans to convert his town's Formule 1 hotel into a shelter.

Maganville, says Mr Lebouc, could cope with a 'few families' but feared 'the grubby-looking hotel would be filled with hundreds of single men', reports The Times.

President Macros on spoke of plans to dispatch officials to Libya and Niger to determine whether migrants had a genuine claim to asylum, before they taken across the Mediterranean.

'Pure madness': Macron's plan to put up thousands of migrants in ...

They will destroy ANY property you put them in. Deport them all and give them a tent on their soil.