During the eviction of the Zénith 2 slum, Wednesday, September 8. Illustrative image. Photo credit: La Mule du Pape
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Monday, October 25, the same day as the expulsion of a squat inhabited by Albanian families, the prefect of Hérault Hugues Moutouh sent the police to dismantle a third slum in Montpellier, avenue Nina Simone.
Moutouh is at war. Barely hours after two Albanian families were evicted from their squatted home near avenue Clémenceau, and while one of them was on a plane to Tirana, a third slum in Montpellier, located avenue Nina Simone , was dismantled by the police.
The 59 inhabitants are for the moment relocated in a former EHPAD requisitioned by the services of the prefecture. But will not be able to stay there after the end of the winter break on April 30, 2022.
Prefecture justifies his decision by highlighting the fire of September 16, which occurred in troubled circumstances. That night, a local woman reportedly saw a man walking around the camp around 5 a.m., just before the start of the disaster. Another witness, interviewed by the media Reports de Force, said to have seen at the same time two men on scooters throw two burning gasoline bottles on empty caravans. A dozen vehicles were destroyed by the flames, without any casualties being to be deplored.
It was not the first fire, but the third since the beginning of August. Numerous intimidations were also reportedly exerted on the inhabitants. The lawyer of several families of these slums, Maître Elise de Foucault, has filed a complaint with the public prosecutor. The third evacuation also, after thats the Mas Rouge camp and the so-called “Zénith 2” camp, on September 1 and 8, respectively.
For the moment, the Hérault prefecture has not been scandalized by these mysterious acts of extreme violence, and seems to have in practice all their consequences on the inhabitants of makeshift camps in Montpellier.
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