Two hotels near Roissy airport, near Paris, were requisitioned to insure the fourteen voluntary overseas students wishing to return to their territories, as part of the deconfinement, said on Saturday the Paris police headquarters. Students affected by this measure must come from five of the twelve overseas territories: Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, said the police headquarters in a press release.
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"The volunteers will be placed in the quarter and tested before their departure from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport where two flights will be chartered in late May / early June," said the prefecture. This fortnight will exempt students from the compulsory measures imposed upon arrival in the Ultra-Marine Territories. The two hotels located in Tremblay-en-France and Roissy started welcoming volunteers on Thursday. The French Red Cross and the French Rescue and First Aid Federation manage the two sites.
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40,000 overseas students in mainland France
Some 11,300 overseas students stranded in mainland since the beginning of containment have been identified as wishing to return to their territories, announced Thursday the Minister of Overseas, Annick Girardin. Each year, around 40,000 overseas students are enrolled in universities in mainland France. Some had been able to return home before confinement began, but others had chosen to stay, for financial reasons, to continue their courses and exams without jet lag, or to avoid contaminating their loved ones.
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The government launched in mid-April a census of the students concerned, in order to "assess and organize the quarantine needs of overseas students on the move in France with a view to their return to their territory".