Police Remove Over 1,600 Migrants From Paris Tent Camps

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Paris police cleared two migrant camps in northern Paris and the inner suburb of Saint Denis on Thursday, saying 1,606 people have been cleared from the camps.

The operation came a day after Interior Minister Christophe Castaner promised to remove migrants from informal camps that have sprung up in the capital by the end of the year.

The migrants were bussed to gym halls in the region for temporary accommodation, public broadcaster FranceInfo reported.

Paris Deputy Mayor Dominique Versini told FranceInfo that hundreds of those in the camps had made themselves scarce beforehand because their legal situation meant they didn’t want to go to an official shelter.

It was the 59th evacuation of informal camps since 2015, Versini said.

Paris Police Chief Didier Lallement told reporters on the scene that he would not allow the camps to be re-established.

Hundreds of migrants have been staying in tent camps that spring up around northern Paris, especially since a large informal camp in the English Channel port town of Calais was dismantled in 2016.

Some of them, 15 to 20 per cent, Versini told FranceInfo  are refugees who have been unable to find accommodation in spite of having been granted asylum.

Thursday’s operations covered two of the three big informal camps in Paris, Castaner told FranceInfo. (dpa/NAN)

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