Over the weeks, the tents became more and more numerous.
This Wednesday, the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture announced that it had evacuated 180 people in the morning who were installed on the banks of the Ourcq canal in Pantin, near the town hall and near the Raymond-Queneau metro station.
According to state services, it was a camp for migrants mainly from Afghanistan.
18 “family” people and 162 single men were taken care of.
“Due to the health crisis and the risks linked to the proximity of local residents to migrants, the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis has decided to dismantle this camp and to shelter (…) its occupants. in temporary accommodation structures distributed throughout the Ile-de-France region, ”said the state services in a press release.
The evacuation was carried out with the support of the services of the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region and the national police.
"Apparently, everything went smoothly," says a member of the Pantin Solidaire collective, created by residents of the town to help these migrants.
For several weeks, he had been bringing them meals and warm clothes.
"We don't know where they went exactly"
“There was a first evacuation in mid-December, reports this member of the collective.
At the time, the migrants were settled under the Delphine-Seyrig bridge, on the border between Paris and Pantin.
Apparently, the police had been instructed that there was no longer anyone on Parisian territory.
Some were therefore rejected towards the town hall of Pantin.
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“We are happy that they are finally sheltered with the cold weather, he continues.
We have been asking for them to be taken care of for several weeks, even if this kind of evacuation is always quite opaque.
We do not know where they went exactly and how they will be followed in the long term.
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For its part, the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis indicates that "at the end of their administrative assessment", people will be "redirected to structures adapted to their situation, whether they are structures of the national system reception centers for asylum seekers, temporary accommodation centers for refugees or ordinary accommodation structures (stopover, overnight stay, social hotel)".
On Twitter, the deputy for the Pantin constituency Bastien Lachaud (LFI) was "delighted" with the sheltering of migrants.
On January 4, he wrote a letter to the Minister of the Interior to alert him to their “inhumane and unworthy of the duty to welcome and respect people that falls to our Republic” living conditions.
