French police have evicted greater than 400 migrants who had been squatting contained in the Gaite Lyrique theatre in central Paris for greater than three months.
Officers started their operation shortly earlier than 6am on Tuesday on the theatre, the place a whole lot of demonstrators had gathered to protest in opposition to the eviction.
Since December 10, the migrants, together with many unaccompanied minors, had occupied the live performance and humanities venue as a part of their calls for for shelter, main the Gaite Lyrique administration to droop its operations on December 17.
A big banner on the Gaite Lyrique learn: “400 lives in danger, 80 jobs underneath menace”.
“Disgrace, disgrace, disgrace to authorities who’re at warfare with remoted minors,” demonstrators chanted in solidarity with the migrants, urging native authorities to offer sustainable housing to them moderately than power them out.
Police briefly used tear fuel initially of their operation however total, the transfer proceeded with none main incidents.
There have been 46 arrests and 9 folks have been barely injured, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez instructed BFM TV.
“We had nowhere to go, we wanted a shelter through the chilly winter nights. So we had no selection however to occupy the Gaite Lyrique,” mentioned Dialo Aimmedou, who mentioned he was 16 and arrived in France in October 2024.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo instructed France Inter radio on Tuesday that the relocation needed to be completed and that emergency housing had been provided to the migrants.
“At this stage, this was the factor to do as a result of the state of affairs was turning into difficult, tense and harmful inside,” she mentioned.
