Behind the banner “No to evictions, Housing for all.tes, Papers for all.tes”, Mohamed, 19, parades for the first time. This young man from the Lake Chad region is very worried for the first time. He has lived “for three years” in the Unibéton squat, an industrial wasteland on the banks of the Seine, located in L’Île-Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). And also on the edge of the future facilities of the 2024 Olympic Games.
Like about fifty other demonstrators, this young man found a roof in the old offices of the company. “It was an Afghan who first told me about this place,” he says. He told me there were my Chadian and Sudanese brothers. We live peacefully here. We share everything. »
Since last week, the tide has turned and the rumor of an imminent expulsion has spread: “We were told that we were going to be expelled at the beginning of March. ” Faris Al Khali Youssouf, member of the collective of Chadian Refugees, who translates, confirms this: “Two weeks ago, France Terre d’Asile (association helping asylum seekers) told us that an eviction was going to be ordered. »
Seventy serviced apartments
In what is considered to be the “largest squat in Île-de-France”, it has been decided to organize a rally this Saturday in the form of a march through the streets of Île-Saint-Denis and Saint-Denis to warn of the upcoming evacuation.
Surrounded by the public works company Colas, this industrial wasteland located on the Quai du Chatelier, on the banks of the Seine, had never made much noise. Until now, apart from a few inhabitants of Île-Saint-Denis and activists, no one imagined the existence of such a large community in the small town of Seine-Saint-Denis.
Installed in this four-storey building, 70 apartments have been fitted out in the former offices and in new constructions, since the premises were taken over in 2021. Shared showers and toilets have been created on all floors. The occupants are mostly men from Chad and Somalia. They are asylum seekers, or rejected asylum seekers, like the young Mohamed. They came out of anonymity to sound the alarm and claim with the DAL (Right to housing): “A roof is a right, a roof is the law”, as well as a regularization.
A micro-company with its own organization
The Unibéton squat has become over the years a sort of institution among migrants. “It’s an unofficial reception center,” explains Éric Coquerel, LFI deputy, who came to visit them this Friday. He has made contact with the prefecture and wants to be reassuring: “There is no imminent expulsion. Not in the short term. The prefecture is at the beginning of the social investigation. »
Indeed, it is common for new arrivals, referred by associations, to take the road to L’Île-Saint-Denis for this place which also receives asylum seekers from the provinces and find a roof here for the time of their stay. review of their procedure by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons. On the other hand, couples with children can be counted on the fingers of one hand. This population works in perfect self-management, in particular thanks to a system of tickets and cleaning rounds.
“It’s coming soon, we have to prepare”
With several hundred people, the Unibéton squat thinks it can influence the prefecture, which will decide when the time is right to resort to public force to ensure an evacuation. Indeed the associations, including United Migrants which “manages” this place, estimates that its population can reach “500 people” in the evening. Which makes it “the most important in the region”, says Romain, treasurer of United Migrants. He too remains convinced that the expulsion could be done quickly: “It’s coming soon, in the coming weeks, we have to prepare,” he says.
No date was given. Even the squatters’ lawyers explain that there are still uncertainties. Master Matteo Bonaglia, one of the counsel, recalls the intricacies of litigation: “The interim order was taken on October 30, 2020. A one-year grace period was granted. This period begins to run from the service of a command to leave the premises. But no one tells me that they have received this commandment. But, as he claims to have noted in another file at a similar stage, “there is nothing to indicate that the prefecture is not preparing to use public force”.
