Several people occupied the Place de la République on November 23, 2020 -

MICHEL SETBOUN / SIPA

Between 200 and 300 people, mainly Afghan refugees and the homeless, took over this Sunday a kindergarten in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, abandoned for several years.

With the help of the associations Utopia56, Solidarité migrants Wilson, Droit au logement (DAL) and CSP75 (Coordination des sans-papiers in Paris), people arrived at the beginning of the afternoon to take up positions to escape the cold. , pandemic and “police violence”.

And this, two months after the muscular evacuation of the Place de République. 

"The objective is not to stay there, it is to obtain shelter for these people who have remained on the floor", explains Yann Manzi, founder of Utopia56, recalling that the establishment is one of the 489 places reported as free to the State for shelter, as part of the “collective requisition” set up by the four associations.

This abandoned school is indeed currently in the middle of a political standoff and therefore empty.

Gyms available

“It's been four days since the police ripped up my tent outside and didn't let me sleep anywhere.

So I hope that this will change things and that I will be able to sleep warm, ”explains Abbas Asghari, 25, who arrived in France a month ago to seek asylum.

In the afternoon, the mayor of Paris made available to these exiles two gymnasiums "from this evening", because the school is "not heated, not secure".

"The fact remains that the accommodation of refugees is a state competence and it will therefore be necessary for its services to take over and offer lasting solutions to these people", insisted on the spot Ian Brossat, deputy of the mayor of Paris in charge of migration issues and emergency accommodation.

If Utopia56 is pleased with a possible rapid exit from the crisis, the association warns that it will be careful that this solution "is not followed by return to the streets".

On Sunday evening, buses were chartered to pick up the refugees and direct them to a gymnasium.

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