Again and again, refugees in the Parisian suburbs set up refugee camps on their own, since there are no places to take them in. And again and again they are evacuated by the police. Like now on Tuesday, the 17th of November. According to the police, this camp was evacuated in the early hours of the morning, according to videos that can be found on the so-called social media, also by using tear gas.
The camp, which was built under a freeway junction near the Stade de France, is said to be home to up to 2400 people at times, mostly young men from Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. Many of them had already sought refuge in other camps they had built themselves, but these were repeatedly disbanded by the police. In the camps there are neither sanitary facilities nor any hygienic measures that somehow protect the health of the refugees. This is also the pretext why these camps are being cleared in the current situation. According to Gerard Darmanin, the French Minister of the Interior, the camp was evacuated on his orders and the numerous people are now to be accommodated elsewhere in various reception centers and sports halls.
However, this opportunity is also being used to ensure that only refugees who are entitled to do so remain in the country. Others are to be deported. However, people are not simply letting this action go: for example, it has been reported that they set fire to pallets near the police cordons.
Human rights organizations criticize the action sharply and as ineffectively. Thus different human right organisations wrote in a common declaration:
"For five years, evacuations have been repeated, despite the dysfunction of the accommodation system that accompanies them (...). Today, the authorities continue to organise these operations, although the previous 65 have proved ineffective and their only effect has been to disperse people".
