Paris police start moving migrants out of school dubbed House of Refugees

Police started moving hundreds of refugees and migrants out of a decommissioned secondary school in Paris early on Friday, ending a four-month stand-off. Officers cordoned off the area before dawn as the inhabitants, including refugees from Afghanistan, Eritrea and other trouble spots, gathered calmly in the school grounds waiting for buses to pick them up. It was not clear where the migrants were going but officials said they would be found alternative accommodation.

This is a humanitarian emergency

Paris Prefect Jean-François Carenco

About 100 migrants moved into the empty Lycee Jean-Quarre building in the capital’s northern 19th arrondissement in July. But numbers soon climbed to more than 700 and it became known as The House of Refugees. In September, a French court gave them a month to leave the premises, which city authorities had been hoping to renovate to turn into a temporary shelter for migrants and, eventually, a library. Other camps near the Gare du Nord and Gare d’Austerlitz train stations were cleared over the summer.

paris migrants Europe