NEW PARIS ‘JUNGLE’
Facing demolition, squalid camps of 2,500 migrants that line city waterways
‘I would like to get back to England’
A STRING of Paris migrant camps similar to Calais’ notorious Jungle are to be demolished within days amid escalating violence and complaints from locals.
The spiralling crisis has seen several camps pop up in the French capital over recent weeks as arrivals increase, turning once-picturesque stretches of canal into rat-infested slums.
Two Afghan migrants were found drowned on one stretch of canal this month while a Sudanese man was stabbed during a fight.
About 2,500 migrants have pitched tents under bridges and along the banks of the city’s waterways which were once popular with cyclists, joggers and tourists.
France is often the final stop for migrants looking to enter the UK and the influx has increased pressure to act, with France’s interior minister Gerard Collomb yesterday ordering police to raze the camps.
The settlements are at the centre of a political row, with president Emmanuel Macron’s government accusing socialist Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo of refusing to clear them.
The Mail found up to 1,000 Eritrean, Sudanese and Nigerian migrants living in one camp spreading half a mile along the banks of the Canal de Saint Denis, north of the city centre. Migrants – mostly men aged 18 to 30 – start fires to cook on makeshift stoves and they have a small number of portable toilets and taps for washing set up.
The camp has already been dubbed the ‘new Calais’ by French media, after the Jungle camp which was demolished in 2016.
There are similar scenes at another camp dominated by about 500 Afghan migrants at the Saint-Martin canal, half a mile from Gare du Nord train station which connects Paris to London via the Eurostar.
Since the camp was set up, business owners say custom has dropped amid an increase in the ‘Nobody because disturbances. cafe La of wants it. Pointe It’s Gilles terrible to Lafayette, Kesse, settle for 22, business. here said: of ‘The It police causes have huge been problems. here three times recently, they come and go because there’s trouble down there and disturbances.
‘And the hygiene is a big problem as well, there are no toilets or sanitation. I’m about 30 or 40 per cent down on business.’
Elsie Fremont, 18, works at cafe Point Ephemere, which overlooks the camp. She said: ‘We just want somebody to sort it out. We have had problems in Paris for a long time, but this is the worst I’ve seen it.’ One migrant at the camp, Raees Angar, 28, said he left Afghanistan after the Taliban killed his brother. The father- oftwo entered the UK in 2009 after climbing into a lorry at Calais, but was deported after his asylum application was rejected.
He returned to Afghanistan but decided to leave for France last year, making his way to Turkey before to people- paying smugglers 5,500 euros to board (£4,820) a boat to Italy. He said: ‘It’s very dangerous here and there are no showers. People come at night time and say, “Give me your money and your mobile phone,” and they use CS spray on us. They are refugees from other countries. If I am successful [with my asylum application] I want to bring my wife and children here.’ Jawad Taj, 26, said he also fled Afghanistan because of the Taliban. He claimed he was also deported from the UK after his work visa expired and a renewal was refused. He said: ‘I miss the life in England and I would like to get back there. But I think I will have to stay here and claim asylum in France first.’ The French interior ministry said police riot squads would clear the camps, with occupants taken by bus to other parts of France where they would be ‘processed’. A spokesman said almost 30,000 migrants had been removed from camps in Paris over three years, though thousands more continue to arrive. A spokesman for mayor Miss Hidalgo said the council was ‘committed to dealing with the issue as humanely as possible’.