The authorities are preparing the evacuation of the camp in Paris. It has grown considerably since the evacuation of Calais a week ago.
About 2000 refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, Sudan and Eritrea, are currently sleeping there.
But there is not enough room for accommodation in reception centers, the mayor said.
Calais was the most famous, but it is by no means the only "jungle" in France. The largest refugee camp in Paris is now to be cleared. The police prepared the camp on Monday, the first tents and mattresses were cleared away. For months, refugees have been sleeping in a temporary camp in the middle of a boulevard in the city, around Stalingrad and Jaurès metro stations. The situation is untenable for the refugees as well as the residents, wrote the Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in a letter to the government, which was announced on Monday, that people would have to be placed under the urgent need.
The tent city between the 10th and 19th Parisian arrondissements in the north of the city has grown considerably a week since the eviction started in Calais. There are dozens of tents and sleeping places right along the street. About 2000 refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, Sudan and Eritrea, are currently sleeping there. However, Hidalgo complains that there is not enough accommodation for her in reception centers. "The humanitarian and sanitary situation of migrants, who have been around the Stalingrad metro station for more than two months, is dramatic." A new reception center will shortly be opened in the north of the city, but there is only room for 400 people. The state must find a solution.
Government: Refugees are not coming from Calais to Paris
President François Hollande announced on the weekend that no other "jungles" in France would be tolerated. It is "not worthy of what a reception in France can be," he said. The example Stalingrad shows, however, that France is clearly not prepared for the evacuation of all camps. The French government, however, has emphasized on several occasions that the refugees are not coming from Calais and points to the many others who are still coming to Europe.
In Paris, for years, wild refugee camps are being built, which are initially tolerated by the month and then cleared by the authorities. An Afghan in the camp told the news agency AFP in the face of police action: "If they do not give us any shelter, why are they destroying our tents?"
