In the video, an endless cohort of men advance in sparse ranks. Some hold a trash bag in their hand as a bundle. The crowd seems calm, lines of CRS surround the crowd. Then suddenly, tear gas canisters burst out, opaque smoke invades the air.
Yesterday took place the expulsion of the asylum seekers camp in Saint-Denis. We have experienced a violent eviction and a manhunt without a shelter offer for 1,000 people. Legal remedies are in preparation pic.twitter.com/Oj1jFAgFMt
– Utopia 56 (@ Utopia_56) November 18, 2020
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The images were shot by one of the volunteers of the Solidarité Migrants Wilson collective, Tuesday afternoon in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), around 3:30 p.m. Since early morning, the police have been supervising the evacuation of the huge camp at the Porte de Paris. Tuesday evening, the police headquarters, the regional prefecture and that of Seine-Saint-Denis announced the sheltering of 3,000 people, including 400 families. But hundreds of migrants, mostly single men – from 500 to a thousand according to associations’ estimates – remained behind. There were obviously not enough places in the coaches, however mobilized in numbers to drive them to temporary reception centers. The corroborating testimonies of migrants and volunteers on the spot therefore describe an end of the evacuation, to say the least, unexpected. “Around 3:30 pm, the police made everyone leave, on foot, in the direction of the Porte de la Chapelle. (Editor’s note: located about 3 km). However, people waited since 3 am on the spot to be able to get on a bus. No explanation was given to them, people did not know where they were going, ”says Philippe Caro, from the Solidarité Migrants Wilson collective. “Our teams were particularly shocked by the progress of the evacuation,” indicates Aurélie Radisson, director of CEDRE-Secours catholique. It felt like a complete improvisation. In the end, those who remained were dispersed in a rather brutal way to the gates of Paris. They should have been taken care of in a dignified manner. There were injuries. “ Another video, taken from a balcony in the La Plaine district, shows the police charging, without us really understanding why, some of the migrants strolling in a small street. “The police told us to go to the Porte de la Chapelle, without telling us why,” explains a young Afghan man, who had been living in the camp for two months and two days. There was gas, we had to run. In the evening, many of us were looking for a place to sleep, in the streets… ”Some homeless people converged on the Rosa-Parks district in Paris.Hundreds of people on the floor
“In the evening, many of us were looking for a place to sleep in the streets”
