Migrants cleared from a university in Paris

As part of the drive to clear migrants from the French capital, , French police raided a university in Paris on 26 June, expelling almost 200 migrants who have been occupying one of its buildings since January of this year.

The clearing operation was launched at the request of Annick Allaigre, the chief of Paris-8 University, who claims that the migrants’ occupation had cost 800,000 euros in losses to the university and blames the migrants for ‘violence’ and ‘theft’.

“Upon request of the president of the University of Paris 8, the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis has authorised the police to liberate the locations illegally occupied since 30 January,” a statement by the local police read.

“The state services have taken charge of 194 migrants present at the site and will now shelter them,’’ the statement added. Another 160 “illegal occupants of the building were also evacuated.

Police used tear gas to get inside the building as around 70 activists and university students, who were aware of the impending operation, tried to keep officers out of the building by making a human shield.

The African migrants who come mainly from West Africa, and from East African countries such as Sudan and Eritrea, had been sleeping rough on the Paris streets before occupying a building at the university in January.

Dozens of makeshift camps set up around the French capital, underneath highway overpasses, on elevated metro lines, or along the city’s canals, have been cleared over the past three years.

Some of the migrants came to Paris after the clearance of the Calais jungle, by the authorities in 2016.

TMP – 21/07/2018

Photo caption: PARIS – MAY 5, 2017: Homeless migrant living in urban camp brushes his teeth on the side of a busy road in north-eastern Paris.