PARIS (AP) – Paris authorities are evacuating some 1,500 migrants from makeshift street camps as Europe contends with an upsurge in new arrivals particularly from Libya.
Police say the migrants camped in the La Chapelle neighborhood on Paris’ northern edge are being taken Friday to temporary shelters in the region where they will be given medical checkups and guidance. City Hall says it is the 34th such operation in the past two years.
Under a heavy summer heat, groups of primarily African men and a few families lined up to board buses with a mixture of relief and apprehension. “We Need Dignity” read a handwritten sign next to a mattress stretched across cobblestones and surrounded by litter.
Tents, sleeping bags and rudimentary cardboard structures housing migrants have sprung up on sidewalks and boulevards in the area. City authorities estimate that dozens of people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East pour in daily to the French capital. Many continue on to the port of Calais to try to cross to Britain, but many stay in Paris in hopes of finding unofficial work or to seek asylum.
In a statement, Paris police said such unauthorized camps “present serious risks for the security and health of their occupants as well as neighborhood residents.”