Paris Becomes Massive Camp for Illegal Migrants
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced plans to build a “humanitarian camp” next to one of the busiest train stations in the city so that thousands of illegal migrants bound for Britain can “live with dignity.”
Paris Becomes Massive Camp for Illegal Migrants
Soeren Kern | Gatestone Institute | June 6, 2016
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced plans to build a “humanitarian camp” next to one of the busiest train stations in the city so that thousands of illegal migrants bound for Britain can “live with dignity.”
Hidalgo, who has often sparred with French President François Hollande for his refusal to accept more migrants, says her plan to help illegal migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East is a “duty of humanism.”
Critics counter that Hidalgo’s plan is a cynical ploy aimed at positioning herself to the left of the current president as part of a political strategy to wrest leadership of the Socialist Party from Hollande, whose approval ratings are a record lows.
At a press conference on May 31, Hidalgo said the camp would be built in northern Paris “near the arrival points for migrants.” She was referring to Gare de Nord — one of the busiest railway stations in Europe — from where high-speed Eurostar trains travel to and arrive from London.
Thousands of illegal migrants, many from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Sudan, have gathered at a nearby public park, the Jardins d’Eole, and turned the area into a massive squatter camp where conditions are squalid. The area, which is so dangerous that the government has classified it as a no-go zone (Zone de sécurité prioritaires, ZSP), has become a magnet for human traffickers who charge migrants thousands of euros for fake travel documents for passage to London.
