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Videos of police violently dismantling a camp erected by asylum seekers to protest homelessness in Paris are “shocking,” said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who requested a report on the police operation by for lunch this Tuesday. The images show officers pulling tents with people inside, chasing people on the streets and attacking migrants, journalists and activists with batons, before dispersing the leftovers with tear gas and breathtaking grenades.
At the request of the non-governmental organization Utopia56, some 450 refugees set up around 500 tents in Piazza della Repubblica on Monday night to protest the forced evacuation of an exile camp near the Stade de France a week ago – since then, many migrants have been left to wander the streets of the French capital. With the asylum seekers, the vast majority of Afghan men were activists, journalists, and some politicians. The police appeared less than an hour later, determined to clear the central square of Paris.
“Some images of the dismantling of an illegal migrant camp in Praça da República are shocking,” Minister Darmanin tweeted. “I just asked the chief of police for a detailed report on the facts. As soon as I receive it, I will make decisions. “
Lawyers, deputies and councilors present on the spot tried to prevent police action, but without success.
“What we saw was repression, which unfortunately is not uncommon but completely disproportionate. Were there any risks for the police officers? No. Was there a risk of property damage? No, ”Éric Coquerel, a member of the left-wing France Insubmissa, said in a FranceInfo statement. “What happened was the repression against people who only ask for respect for their human rights, against peaceful activists, journalists and elected representatives without discrimination.”
“The state offers a deplorable spectacle” by giving “a police response to a social situation,” Ian Brossat (Communist Party), deputy of the Paris Chamber in charge of welcoming refugees, told AFP. To think that we solve social problems with batons is crazy, ”Brossat said. “As long as there are no shelters available, there will be people on the frua, there will be camps. To think that this can be solved by the police harassment we saw tonight is pathetic. “
“Unworthy” or “scandalous” were words repeated by various members of the opposition, by NGOs or trade union organizations.
The first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, denounced “a hunt for misery with a truncheon”, while the spokesman for the Socialists, Boris Vallaud, reported on Twitter “dismay” and “sadness”. “This government is failing in all its duties, starting with that of humanity.”
The police operation takes place at an already delicate time for the government, which faces much criticism for the new law on global security, which is expected to be voted on Tuesday afternoon in the National Assembly and which prohibits the disclosure of images of agents of police in certain circumstances. .
“Fortunately, there are pictures,” Laurent Berger, general secretary of the central CFDT union, told France 2. “I find it scandalous, mind-blowing. People peacefully occupied a square with tents… ”, he said. For another union leader, Philippe Martinez (CGT), what happened on Monday evening “is worthy of a country that is not France”. Martinez, like several political leaders, also congratulated himself on “there may be pictures”.
Left on the street
Utopia56 had issued a statement asking the authorities to provide shelter to the approximately 3,000 migrants living on the streets in Paris and on the outskirts of the city.
After the evacuation of the camp near the Stade de France, the municipality claims that more than 3,000 people went to reception centers or gyms. But of those who lived in that camp, between 500 and 1,000 remained on the street: “They remained on the street and invisible, but they need housing, especially in the midst of a health crisis”, says Maël de Marcellus, from Utopia56 , quoted by the newspaper The world.
The police of Paris and the Ile-de-France region defended the operation in a joint statement stating that “the establishment of such camps, organized by some associations, is unacceptable”, therefore “the immediate dispersion was ordered. of this illegal occupation of public space “.
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