Between 200 and 300 homeless exiles, supported by a collective of associations, occupied a Parisian gymnasium on Thursday afternoon to demand shelter and accommodation, AFP noted.
Read also: Migrants deported near Calais, a hundred "sheltered"
Shortly before noon, the militants of the "
Collectif requisitions
" and the migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa or Afghanistan, entered the Japy gymnasium, in the 11th arrondissement. "
We demand shelter for all these people, families and minors who sleep in the street, because our network of solidarity hosts can no longer provide this accommodation
", explained to AFP Maël de Marcellus, a Parisian manager of the Utopia56 association, member of the collective.
This is the fourth punch-down operation of this organization, which has always obtained shelter after the Parisian occupations of a former nursery school in the 16th arrondissement, at the end of January, at the Hôtel-Dieu in mid- February, or the Place de la République at the end of March. "
If we take this kind of action, it's because we no longer have a choice, we are back to the wall, we hope that the authorities will take the measure of the situation
", adds Kerill Theurillat, another person in charge of 'Utopia56, which evokes many returns to the streets of people sheltered during previous actions.
This is the case of Armelle Olivia Sonfack, a 30-year-old Cameroonian who arrived in France three months ago. Since then, she has oscillated between the street, with her three-year-old twins, and accommodation with locals or in churches offered by certain associations. “
Since Monday, I've been outside again. After the Place de la République, I was lodged for a week at the hotel, then I returned to the street. Then 10 days at the hotel, and so on
, ”she says in the gymnasium stands. For her, stable accommodation is essential, “
because without a fixed address I cannot even enroll the children in school
”.
Hamid Nadir, a 29-year-old Afghan, asks for nothing else: since his arrival in France four months ago, he has been "
outside, without a shower, with nothing
". He left his country in 2013 to escape the Taliban after having, he says in French, served as an interpreter for the French army. According to the collective requisitions, the last three actions have made it possible to shelter 720 people. "
We are determined to remain peacefully on site until the establishment of accommodation solutions
," he said.
