Inquiry into French police ‘attacking’ migrants

FRANCE’S interior minister yesterday began an investigation after accusations of a “scandalous” use of excessive force in dispersing a camp pitched by homeless migrants in Paris.

Gérald Darminin confessed that images of migrants being kicked and tripped by police as they fled Paris’s Place de la République were “shocking”.

He said he had agreed to refer the incident to the National Police Inspectorate General (IGPN), which investigates officers’ conduct.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government is already facing furore from journalists, opposition politicians and rights groups over a new security bill they say erodes police accountability and reporting freedoms.

Officers on Monday night used tear gas to clear around 500 tents erected to protest against earlier forced evacuations of migrants from other camps on the outskirts of the French capital.

Shortly after their arrival, police moved in en masse, tossing them from tents, beating them with batons and chasing them into side streets.

Videos posted on social media show one officer kicking an activist and another tripping a man as he ran.

Laurent Berger, CFDT trade union chief, told France 2 TV that the actions of the police were “scandalous and astounding”. “People occupy a square peacefully with tents, simply because they have a housing problem. And there is this intervention which is totally disproportionate,” he said.

Paris police said the camp was evacuated because it was illegal, and “invited” the migrants to seek lodging elsewhere offered by the state or aid groups.

But after receiving a report from Didier Lallement, the Paris police chief, confirming “several unacceptable facts”, Mr Darmanin pledged that the IGPN would submit its findings within 48 hours.