Lille (AFP)
Lille welcomes, for a year, 24 refugee claimants aged 19 to 29, mostly Sudanese and rescued in July by the humanitarian ship Alan Kurdi in the Mediterranean, said the town hall Friday.
"We will welcome others next week, which France is committed to receiving, collected by the ship Open Arms, which has just landed in Lampedusa after so many difficulties," promises Martine Aubry (PS) in a statement .
The migrants of Alan Kurdi, rescued at sea in July by the boat of a German NGO and landed in Malta, arrived Thursday and will be housed in a former retirement home, in connection with the association The Safeguarding North, mandated for a by the State, specifies the town hall. A call for donations is launched.
About 40 Sudanese refugees, rescued by the humanitarian ship Aquarius, had been accommodated in the same residence in the summer of 2018, for a year. According to the town hall, they are still living in Lille and in the region, "more or less autonomous".
In July, Alan Kurdi rescued dozens of migrants off the coast of Libya in several separate rescue operations and landed in Malta for distribution across several European countries.
© 2019 AFP