“We are suffering! », Proclaims a small sign, in the middle of the forest of slogans which are as many calls for help, launched on behalf of the hundreds of refugees installed for weeks in disused tunnels, on the fringes of Paris and Seine-Saint- Denis. This Sunday afternoon, the solidarity movement forged among the residents of Pantin and Pré-Saint-Gervais around these refugees, including families and children, decided to "place elected officials and politicians before their responsibilities", as insists Yazid Arifi, one of the organizers of this event, part of Pré-Saint-Gervais, right under the windows of the 19th century town hall. “Solidarity! "," A roof, a right "," School "," Help "," A shelter "." No longer sleeping outside "... The two hundred people mobilized, sometimes as a family,did not expect to meet the mayor on a Sunday afternoon, but "this is only the beginning of a long, undoubtedly very long mobilization", warn the members of Solidarité Migrants Wilson, Pré Solidaire and Nous sont Pantin, three collectives united to "move the lines" and obtain decent care for the refugees confined in this desolate sector of north-eastern Paris.
"A human drama"
"We are going to ask to meet each of the mayors concerned, on both sides of the ring road, here in the nineteenth but also the mayor of the twentieth, that of Pantin, of the Pré, announces Yazid, they must put premises and resources to provision, that they seize the vacant housing, all that is their responsibility, to quickly find a solution for all the refugees, without forgetting the double problem of the displaced of crack, who are also refugees!
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“A human tragedy is happening in the midst of total institutional indifference, at the gates of the capital and Seine-Saint-Denis, the activists of We are Pantin lamented.
At the end of November, when temperatures are dangerously close to zero, dozens of exiles have come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea or Côte d'Ivoire, to flee poverty and war, survive here in conditions which are an affront to human dignity.
They are now in danger of death as temperatures drop ”.
A call for help to mayors
Thanks to donations and the daily mobilization of activists, residents of neighboring towns, hundreds of meals are prepared and brought every day to exiles in the tunnels. Collections of clothing and essential hygiene products were also organized, “the only support given to exiles was the result of citizens' initiatives, this support is not enough, not enough! »Urge members of associations for mayors on both sides of the ring road. "It is time that greater resources were used to shelter these people and prove themselves worthy of the universalist ideals that we claim to embody."
“Unfortunately we are well aware of this dramatic human situation, readily admits the mayor (PS) of the 19th century, François Dagnaud. I challenged the regional prefecture, co-signed a letter to the prefect, presented a wish which was adopted by the Council of Paris… and there were several shelter operations, the last of which was in October. But each time, the camp is reconstituted… and this partly because of organizations which come to the aid of the exiles and bring them in these tunnels ”, annoys the elected representative a little. “It is easy to put the weight of precariousness on the north-east of Paris alone! This is abnormal, and it is an additional injustice to these neighborhoods. I can only hurry, that all these people, these children, benefit from a quick shelter, the City will have to replace the prefecture,which explains having already carried out numerous operations, and while the entire hosting system is saturated ”.
