French Police Dismantle a Migrant Camp

Just one week after dismantling an illegal camp sheltering over 2000 migrants near Paris, French police cleared another makeshift camp accommodating more than 500 migrants.

The camp had been set up by volunteers at La Place de la République on Monday night, and quickly attracted homeless migrants the majority of whom were Afghans. One hour later, the police intervened to clear the encampment stating that it was an “illegal occupation of public space.”

“Today an encampment was installed illegally in Paris’s Place de la Republique square. Police immediately proceeded with the evacuation of this illegal occupation of public space,” Paris police tweeted.

The outraged crowd and volunteers joined arms and chanted in one voice “papers for all, accommodation for all!”

Pictures and videos were posted on social media showing police officers picking and confiscating tents with people still inside them. The police, then, used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and hit others using batons while chasing them through the streets.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin expressed his shock over the violent dispersion of the camp. “Some of the images of the dispersion of the illegal migrant camp at Place de la République are shocking,”

The French association Utopia56 denounced the violence employed in the clearance of the camp and demanded  “the resignation of the Police Commissioner and the Interior Minister, the immediate cessation of police violence as well as unconditional solutions of accommodation”