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The French Interior Minister has described images of police breaking through a refugee camp in the center of Paris, chasing people through the streets and attacking journalists and others with batons and tear gas as “shocking”.
Gérald Darmanin said he had demanded a report on the police operation by lunchtime on Tuesday.
“Certain images of the breakdown of an illegal immigrant camp on the Place de la République are shocking,” Darmanin tweeted Monday night. “I have just demanded a detailed report on the reality of the events from the prefect of police tomorrow at noon. I will make decisions as soon as I receive them. “
Police and gendarmes were dispatched late Monday to clear a camp from the square in central Paris. Some 450 refugees set up tents at the request of the Utopia 56 charity to protest against the forced eviction from a camp a few days earlier that left dozens of migrants roaming the streets.
Utopia 56 had issued a statement demanding that the authorities provide shelter for the approximately 3,000 homeless migrants who sleep in and around the street in the French capital.
As night fell, police and gendarmes arrived to clear the square. The agents were filmed setting up tents and leaving the migrants on the ground.
Lawyers, deputies and councilors of the Place de la République tried to defuse tensions and stop the police action, without success.
Ian Brossat, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of housing, who was present, condemned the police operation and said that the only solution was for the State to find housing for the homeless.
“This problem is not something that the police should solve. To think that we solve social problems with batons is crazy, ”said Brossat. “As long as there is no housing available, there will be people living outside, and as long as there are people living outside, there will be camps. To think that we can solve that with the police harassment that we have seen tonight is pathetic ”.
Police used tear gas and crowd dispersal grenades to break up groups of people, and journalists said they were deliberately targeted.
Rémy Buisine, a reporter for the news website Brut, said he was attacked three times by the same policeman despite showing his press card.
Later, the prefecture police said that the organization of ad-hoc migrant camps in the city was “unacceptable.”
“The police prefecture, therefore, was dedicated to the immediate dispersal of this illegal occupation of a public space,” he said in a statement.
The police operation came at a sensitive time for the French government, which faces widespread criticism over a new law that would make the dissemination of images of police officers illegal under certain circumstances. The law, seen as a direct threat to press freedom, also authorizes the police use of drones and facial recognition technology. It has passed its first reading in the Assemblée Nationale.
Éric Coquerel, a deputy for the left-wing La France Insoumise party, who was present at the Place de la République on Monday, told FranceInfo: have to do is get the law passed. If not, you should remove it. “
He added: “What we saw was a crackdown which, unfortunately, is not that unusual but which was completely disproportionate. Were there any risks to the police officers? No. Was there a risk of material damage? No. Instead, there was a repression that fell, I remind you, on people who only demand that their human rights be respected, on peaceful activists, on journalists and elected representatives without discrimination ”.
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