Of the 2,400 migrants removed from the illegal camp at La Chapelle in northern Paris on Friday, 430 were transferred to a temporary shelter at the gym of Université Paris-Descartes in the city's South while the remaining were taken to about 20 CAOs (centers for reception and orientation) distributed around the Parisian region of Ile de France.

The university camp was set up "within three days," Perrine Decquecker of the aid organization Aurore explained, as a "temporary solution to decongest the bubble [another name given to the center at la Chapelle]." Migrants are now housed in two gymnasium halls. In addition, 30 tents holding 10 persons each were set up in the courtyard. In four weeks time though, the shelter will have to be dissembled again once students return.

Around 100 #migrants sleep in each of the gymnastics halls in the temporary reception centre @InfoMigrants_fr pic.twitter.com/RaTrfm8EyC

— Sharif Bibi (@sharifbibi) August 18, 2017

Shelter for 4 weeks

The makeshift shelter at university in the 15th arrondissement is one of the short-term solutions to what remains a pressing issue in Paris. The French capital struggles to accommodate thousands of refugees who are camping out in the streets. Last week's evacuation was the 35th evacuation operation in two years and the second large one in little more than a month.

Police had removed thousands of migrants in the same region earlier in July. Efforts to stop the proliferation of unauthorized camps however were to no avail. Many migrants in northern France are without shelter due to the closing of the "Jungle" in Calais in 2016 and the fire at Grande Sythe near Dunkirk. They are flocking to Paris, forming unauthorized camps in lack of shelter.

Police said that the migrants involved in the most recent evacuation would have their cases examined and that those making an initial request for asylum will be put in line with national procedures. "Everyone will undergo an administrative check and will then be sorted based on their situation", said Paris police officer Yann Drouet to AFP. Those with rejected asylum requests would face deportation.

Lack of adequate housing

France has come under harsh criticism for its failure to provide adequate housing to migrants and refugees. Reports by non-governmental organizations like Refugee Rights Data Project had highlighted precarious conditions for displaced homeless minors in the north of France. The independent rights watchdog Defenseur des Droits [Human Rights Defender] has called for more reception centres to ensure decent conditions.

In July, conservative Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had announced that France would increase housing by at least 12,000 places in reception centres for asylum seekers and refugees by 2019. The Macron government also pledged to speed up asylum procedures from 18 to six months and to provide new resources to asylum seekers. The move came after media reports revealed the squalid living conditions of migrant children in Grand-Sythe. Pictures tweeted by the local mayor showed children sleeping rough in woods around the former migrant camp.

Tougher stance on illegal migrants

At the same time, the government announced it would take a tougher stance on economic migrants and apply measures to "systematically" deport illegal migrants. When Emmanuel Macron put forth his proposition to set up migrant registration centres in Libya in July, he said, "No country can take all the economic migrants."

While long-term solutions to the housing issue are yet to come, members of the Samu social, a humanitarian emergency service in France that provides medical care to the homeless, as well as officials of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii) will attend to the migrants in the university's temporary camp to sort out their administrative status before dismantling the center.

InfoMigrants with AFP, dpa