Slideshow: Paris police demolish Koubri migrant refugee camp
French police demolished two ad hoc migrant refugee camps in the country Tuesday, one in the northern port town of Calais and the other in central Paris. Last week FSRN’s Raphaël Krafft visited the Paris camp and talked with a number of residents there. After issuing a 48-hour warning on Saturday that the camp known as Koubri, or the Bridge, would be dismantled — police descended in the early morning. French authorities cited the of epidemic as the reason for evicting the residents and destroying the camp. A Paris police spokesperson said they took all of the 380 migrants by bus to shelters in and around Paris. Raphaël Krafft went back to the camp this morning and captured these images of what transpired as the makeshift home to hundreds was destroyed. Listen to his audio report here.
Click on any image below to launch slideshow.
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- At about 6:00 a.m. Tuesday, the Paris police department and city staff started evacuating the camp known as Koubri, or the Bridge, with more than a dozen buses. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- “Capitalism is the epidemic along with its cops, its wars, its borders. Solidarity with migrants” says the banner under Paris metro near Koubri camp. The possibility of an epidemic was the reason authorities cited for dismantling the makeshift camp. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Only a few migrant residents who were away when the police blocked off the camp were allowed back in. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Officials denied all access to the area, including all media and most of the migrants who were away when the police arrived to dismantle the camp. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Buses took some people to temporary shelter. Officials did not say specifically where they were taking the Koubri residents. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- An activist waves her hand as a bus filled with migrants leaves Koubri campground. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Pascal Julien, a Green Party member of the Paris City Council who barely managed to access the camp, said the migrants will be given precarious housing alternatives and expects they will be back in the streets of Paris in the days or weeks to come. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Migrants who were denied access to Koubri because they were away when the police arrived. They are left to watch as bulldozers raze the camp with all their belongings inside. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Bulldozers started razing the camp after all migrants had been evacuated. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Mohammed, a refugee from Chad who had left the camp in the early morning, was denied access when he returned. All his belongings, including his papers, were left inside and destroyed when the bulldozers razed the camp. He does not possess anything anymore. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Ayma, a six-month-old Eritrean refugee, and his parents do not know where they will sleep in the coming days. Authorities denied them any assistance because they were absent during the early morning evacuation of the camp. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- “Papers for all” (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- After eight months of inaction, Deputy Mayor Dominique Versini tells the media those people taken by bus from Koubri campground will be relocated to alternative housing in Paris and its suburbs. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
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- Some 20 migrant, mostly Sudanese and Eritreans who were denied assistance, demonstrated later in the day in front of Paris 18th District city hall and were finally taken to a shelter in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. (Photo Credit: Raphaël Krafft)
