Nearly 200 migrants, mostly women, children and families, have gathered on the square in front of the Paris City Hall. The protest organized by the Utopia 56 association aims to find them shelter and condemn the "increasingly aggressive" expulsions taking place in France since last year's Olympic Games.
Nearly 200 people have been sleeping outside Paris City Hall, in the heart of the French capital since August 5, because they lack other accommodation, say pro-migrant associations. With jackets and survival blankets on hand, volunteers from the association Utopia 56 helped organize the protest which was aimed at alerting the public authorities to the group's situation. "We will not move until a lasting solution is found," said Nathan Lequeux, coordinator of the association’s Paris branch.
The association distributed breakfast the next day to the people who had slept outside. While some migrants left for work or for meetings in the capital, nearly 150 people remained in the square. The number had increased to 230 people overnight.
"We just finished distributing lunch, the temperatures are beginning to rise, and the most vulnerable people are already starting to suffer," said Lequeux in the early afternoon. "It’s going to be 30 degrees or more tomorrow," he said, clearly worried.
Among the people present in the square, "nearly half are children," he said, with 90 minors present in total.
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Around 30 children below the age of three
Of the 90 children present, Utopia56 counted "thirty children under the age of three."
Maria and her husband, for example, had been living on the streets for a month with their four-month-old daughter, reported the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP).
It was an "unusual proportion" of very young children, hardly witnessed since Utopia began holding its evening outreach in Paris City Hall square to help people find shelter, said Lequeux. "We've had more and more single women in recent months, sometimes between 70 and 90 per evening. Now, it's mostly families," said the coordinator. "The numbers fluctuate and depend on how many people are end up on the streets."
There were also 11 unaccompanied minors among the group of migrants on the square. Some of them young females. These young girls were previously housed by Utopia 56. Yet in the summer, the association loses two-thirds of its volunteers and solidarity hosts. One of its main shelters, in Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis), closed the evening of August 5.
This lack of accommodation isn't spoken of "as often in the summer [compared to wintertime, editor’s note], there are more children on the streets," said Eleonore Schmitt, a coordinator of the Collective of housing associations, in an interview with AFP. She also blamed budget cuts. "The elimination of 6,500 accommodation places for asylum seekers, passed in the 2025 Finance Law, is having an impact on the ground."
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The public authorities 'underestimate' this period, thinks Utopia 56
Summer is "a period which is often underestimated by the public authorities, yet 30 percent of the fatalities happen during this period," said Lequeux. The situation is worsening this season in several areas: "public services are slowing down. Many showers, day centers, and distribution centers are closing due to lack of staff. Life on the streets is getting more difficult."
By August 5, there was no longer any question of compensating for these failings by the public authorities. "We can no longer manage, so we're turning to those responsible for this situation," said the coordinator from Utopia 56.
Contacted by InfoMigrants, the Prefecture of Paris and Ile-de-France (the region including the French capital and its surroundings) did not respond to our request for comment. Yet its office informed AFP that "there are no closures of accommodation spaces related to the summer period" and "the number of accommodation spaces in the Île-de-France region remains at a high level (over 113,000 spots)". The regional prefecture also said that closures of accommodation facilities are "accompanied by openings," such as the "setting aside of specific spaces in [its] premises for isolated women, some of whom are with children."
A spokesperson for Paris City Hall said that it continues to open "centers in both summer and winter to shelter people and their families." It told AFP that "1,063 people are currently sheltering in permanently converted municipal facilities or in city gymnasiums."
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The authorities often rely on regional reception centers (SAS) to shelter people. These temporary emergency accommodation centers located outside the Île-de-France region were set up the summer prior to the Olympic Games to relieve overcrowding in the capital. Associations at the time criticized the policy, describing it as a "social cleansing" of Parisian streets.
"This is the solution we've been systematically offered since the Olympics," said Lequeux. Yet "it's not suitable," he added. Even less so for the vulnerable groups who have been present in the square since yesterday. First, these shelters are temporary, with reception limited to only three weeks.
Second, "families have their children in school in Paris, and their administrative or medical appointments here! As for the unaccompanied minors, it's not possible to accommodate them in the adult facilities. This would remove them from the process of having their minority status recognized". Two years after they opened, the ten regional facilities are struggling to find a suitable clientele, according to an investigation in the French newspaper Le Monde.
Since the Olympics, eviction policies for informal settlements in the Paris region have also become increasingly "aggressive," said Lequeux. "Living on the streets is becoming impossible. Evictions are taking place without even an eviction order, as required by the law. Since the Olympics, the authorities have become even more reckless in disregarding the law," added the Utopia 56 coordinator.
Also contacted by InfoMigrants, the regional prefecture has so far not provided its version of events.
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