Twenty women accompanied by their small children have been camped for a week on avenue de la République in Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis), in front of the gym from which they were expelled. And wait for shelter. Reportage.
10:00, avenue de la République in Bagnolet, a few steps from the ring road. Under a scorching sun, two police officers identify people who have been camped on the sidewalk for a week at the entrance to the Jean Reneault gym. “They already passed yesterday afternoon and they told us we had 24 hours to leave. But to go where? worries Karidjia, her eyes glued to the officials. We have nowhere to run. ” After several months of wandering, this 32-year-old Ivorian landed here a week ago. Since then he has been living and sleeping on the ground, surrounded by a chaos of boxes, blankets, toys and flies attracted to food. With her, twenty women and their 28 children. The lucky ones managed to find abandoned mattresses on the street but they are infested with bedbugs. “It is not easy, we sleep badly, some have stomach ache, especially the little ones. But it’s fineexplains with a smile Afisiata, in her thirties, who wants to praise the solidarity of the people of the neighborhood and of the associations. They bring us food, diapers, baby wipes that we share. And each of us watches over the children “.
Afisiata’s son, Amadou, is two months old and is constantly cuddled in his mother’s arms. Other older children wander along the street dragging their toys. A dangerous environment due to the incessant traffic day and night. Yesterday the town hall of Bagnolet had studs installed to protect them.
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“To avoid a tragedy, the gym guard preferred to confiscate all the scooters and bicycles. Behind his padlocked gate, the man says he is helpless. “The only thing I can do is let them in to go to the bathroom and shower. This is the minimum, allow them to stay clean. It is a question of humanism. Children have nothing to do with any of this. When I see them, I think of mine, I wouldn’t want it for them “. An observation shared by a local resident who came to bring a bottle of water. “The neighborhood suffers from this situation, but we deal with it. It’s awful. “ A tourist who seems lost calls them. “I’m german, of Ethiopian origin. I’ve never seen it in my country. My heart bleeds to see these women and children on the sidewalk. How is it possible ?”
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All these women of African origin come from the rue l’Epine camp in Bagnolet where there were 317 people in July. Three weeks ago the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis evacuated him and sent migrants to the gyms in Lilas, Clichy-sous-Bois and Bagnolet. Before making them proposals for accommodation on August 4: in Nice, Lyon, Libourne, Besançon or Toulouse. “When we arrived in Reims, people told us they couldn’t actually accommodate us as we weren’t asylum seekers, explains one of the women who prefers to remain anonymous. They wanted to give us the money to go home. But I can not. I am from Guinea-Conakry and if I go back I will be killed by my family because I refused a forced marriage. “ Voluntary returns for money as reported by some of the women who preferred to return this piece of Bagnolet bitumen. Others simply refused to board the buses. This is the case of Barakyssa, 37 years old. “I was offered to go to Nice, but I didn’t want to because my children go to school in Ile-de-France. And my husband works here even though he has no papers. I didn’t want to leave him. Since then he keeps calling 115 several times a day but he often doesn’t answer.
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Faced with this situation of blockade, the city of Bagnolet seems powerless and indicates that only the Prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis is competent to protect these populations in a situation of great vulnerability. For its part, the Prefecture says it is looking for new shelter solutions, given the dangerousness of the road and the deplorable sanitation conditions. “In the meantime, there is a health emergency. There are women who are collapsing psychologically, some are sick. There are tensions between them. We feel enormous anguish.”alarmed Alma Bashir, president of the Charity Concept association, who brings them breakfast every morning.
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With 25 other associations he launched a petition that collected more than 700 signatures to ask for the reopening of the Jean Reneault gym, in the absence of something better.
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