After the evacuation of the Cenon squat on Thursday 11 February, the support collective wanted to deliver figures and testimonies on the dispersions of the evicted people. Out-of-school children, adults away from their workplaces… the collective once again denounces the lack of preparation for this operation which, “properly done, would have enabled the prefecture to be in tune with human reality”.
Michael is Nigerian. Arrived in France in 2012, he is in possession of a residence permit and has worked in Bordeaux for a year and a half with a permanent contract. Expelled from the La Zone libre squat, he agreed to board the bus chartered by the prefecture with his wife and four children.
“We met at 115 for accommodation for a few days in Angoulême. We had no plans and we were far from everything. I preferred to come back to Bordeaux. “
After him, a young Albanian high school student testifies:
“This situation causes a lot of anxiety and stress for my studies. I have been in France for 5 years and I am on the fourth expulsion. “
Another testimony is that of a French teacher at the Lycée Montesquieu. She reports her concern for one of her students:
“Saba is a serious and assiduous student, who strives to progress in his learning and in particular of the French language. Challenging all of this risks being catastrophic. “
“They expected to find people on deckchairs sipping mojitos”
In Darwin, this Thursday morning, the Free Zone support collective (which brings together associations, movements, unions, cultural structures, and citizens…) “wanted to take a human toll one week after the expulsion from the Paul-Ramadier site in Cenon ”explains Brigitte Lopez, from the Education Without Borders Network (RESF). It wishes to specify in the preamble certain differences between the figures announced:
“The day before the eviction, there were 300 people including 110 children. The prefecture speaks of 120 people. Where does this gap come from? The prefecture has counted the inhabitants twice. In October 2020, the daytime count recorded 146 people. While we know that 100 children go to school or nursery and that most people work or pursue formalities. Apparently they expected to find people on lounge chairs sipping mojitos. Last Thursday, the day of the eviction, they counted 123 people. But the day before, we knew that the expulsion was going to take place and some put their children elsewhere to avoid this trauma and others had already left. “
Brigitte Lopez thus regrets the absence of “a much more precise vision if the diagnosis had been made correctly, which would have allowed the prefecture to be in phase with human reality and to make proposals for upward exits. “.
Then comes a precise count given by David Thomas, citizen committed to the collective:
“As of February 17, we have identified 181 adults and 104 people. Currently, 12 are in hotels paid for by associations, 23 in hotels paid for by the State, 105 in solidarity accommodation, 49 in Darwin, 24 have found squats, 19 are homeless, 5 outside the Gironde , 6 rented, 3 in the hospital, 4 taken care of by Cada, 10 have reached homes, and we have no news of 25 people. ”
At the start of the school year, “we will count the empty chairs”
This fragmentation poses a monitoring problem for many associations, Gérard Clabé of RESF specifies:
“87% of children are old enough to be or were in school. 53% of them were in nursery or elementary school in 15 establishments in the Bordeaux metropolitan area. 24% in college in 10 establishments. We have a very precise follow-up and unfortunately, next Monday, the day of the start of the school year, we will count the empty chairs. “
As for Doctors of the World, the association underlines the danger for people in care (therapy, renal failure…) and regrets that the Prefect “sweeps these cases out of hand and disrupts their care path”.
For his part, Raymond Blet qualifies the expulsion as illegal. This retired lawyer and supporter of the collective, plans to challenge many decisions relating to this expulsion before the administrative court, or even the Assize Court. For him, “the reports affirm that the apartments are empty, but they were full. The border police had passed before to empty them by force ”.
In conclusion, Philippe Barre of Darwin Solidarités called on entrepreneurs to make a commitment to make empty premises available, inviting the Chambers of Commerce and Industry to take action.
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